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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE YAJVAPALAS OF NARWAR No. 175 ; PLATE CXL THE stone on which this record is inscribed was discovered in 1917-18, by M. B. Garde, the then Superintendent of Archaeology in the formers State of Gwālior, and was brought to notice by the same scholar in the Annual, Administrative, Report of the department for the year Vikrama 1971 (No. 9), which was not printed,[1] and also in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XLVII (1918), p. 242. The record was also enlisted by D. R. Bhandarkar in his List of Inscriptions of Northern India under No. 603, and subsequently it was edited by Dr. D. C. Sircar, with transliteration of the text in Roman characters, in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXIII (1959-60), pp. 36 ff., with Plate, facing p. 40. It is edited here from the original stone which now exists in the Archeological Museum at Gwālior. The inscription was found at Narwar the ancient Nalapura, which was the capital of the Yajvapāla dynasty in the latter half of the thirteenth century A.C. The place lies in the Karērā parganā in the Sipri (Shivpurī) District of Madhya Pradesh, about 26 kms. north by west of Karērā and almost equidistant south-east of Shivpurī, and contains ruins of old palaces ascribed to the ruling house of the Yajvapālas. The stone bearing this inscription stated in have been discovered in these ruins.
The complete dimensions of the stone including a plain border which it has on all the four sides, are 73∙5 cms. by 72 cms. The writing, which is in a sunken panel thereof, cover an area about 56 cms. broad by 54 cms. high and contains 27 lines of equal length. But it has suffered a good deal owing to the effects of weather. A number of the aksharas have been brushed off or damaged, particularly in the middle portion of ll. 7-18, where some of the letters are more or less rubbed out, since the work of engraving too was far from satisfactory, as will be shown below. The size of the letters varies from 1∙2 to 1∙5 cms. in height. The characters are Nāgarī of the thirteenth century A.C. The forms of ch, dh and v are often confounding with each other ; e.g., the letter ch, which almost resembles v in vidhau cha, l. 1 has its loop angular in prōṁchchhita-, l. 3 and it also approaches its modern Nāgarī form as in -Achyuta-, in the same line. The horn of the left limb of dh is prominent in most of the cases ; it is sometimes oblique, e.g., in vidhau, l. 1, but in some instances it is joined to the top of the horizontal bar, as in niruṁdhan, l. 3. Unlike the preceding record, this letter hears a top-stroke in the present one. J is in a transitional stage, its antique and modern forms being noticed respectively in the same word Jajapēlla, in l. 5. The subscript forms of chh and th are alike ; cf. avasthā- and vāṁchhita-, ll. 1 and 19, respectively. The middle vertical bar of ṇ often ends in a loop as in -varmaṇaḥ, l. 18 ; as a latter member of a conjunct consonant, this letter is marked as l, e.g. in vardhishṇu, l. 21 ; and when joined with the same syllable, it is marked by a slanting stroke, as in kā(kī)rṇṇa-, l. 20. The forms of t and bh continue as in the preceding inscriptions; and those of the palatal and the dental sibilants are so engraved as to show a combination of both ; see saikata, l. 18. The consonant r which has assumed its modern Nāgarī form, has occasionally the wedged form and also the one as the vertical marked by a horizontal stroke, as in the preceding records. The medial short u is sometimes denoted by a curve attached to the vertical of a letter to which it belongs, as in -śruti-, l. 7, sometimes the lower extremity of the curve is curled up, sharply, as in -Achyuta-, l. 3, and with an angle, as in niruṁdhan, in the same line ; but generally it assumes the modern form, e.g., in diśatu in the same line. The medial long ū is occasionally marked as the subscript t attached to the left lower part of a letter, e.g., in pūta-, l. 17.
Mistakes of the writer and the engraver are to be noticed throughout the inscription ;
[1] The reference here is H. N. Dvivedi’s Gwalior Rājya-kē Abhilēkha. No. 141, as noted before also. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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