North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE YAJVAPALAS OF NARWAR

No. 179 ; PLATE CXLIV
NARWAR STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF GAṆAPATIDEVA [ Vikrama ] Year 1355

THIS inscription was first brought to notice, in 1864-65, by General Cunningham in his Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vol. II (1862-1865), p. 315. Subsequently, a short account of it was published by Kielhorn in 1893, in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXII, pp. 81 ff ; but this account, which is based on a pencil rubbing supplied to him by Dr. Burgess, is without a transcript or a lithograph. The record was again referred to by M.B. Grade in the same Journal, Vol. XLVII (1918), p. 241, and also in the Annual Report of the Archaeology Department of the former Gwālior State, for Saṁvat 1971 (1914-15 A.C.) ; and it was also enlisted by D. R. Bhandarkar in his List of Inscriptions (No. 642) ; and subsequently, it was edited by D. C. Sircar, in the (1958), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXII pp. 343 ff., with a facsimile. I edit it here from the original stone and from two impressions, one of which was prepared by me, and the other which I owe to the courtesy of the Chief Epigraphist of the Archaelogical Survey of India.

The stone bearing this inscription was found at Narwar^[1] in the Sīprī (Shivpurī) District of Madhya Pradesh and is now deposited in the Archaeological Museum at Gwālior. It has a broad border on all the four sides, and along with it, measures 66.5 cms. broad and 47.5 cms. high. The record consists of twenty-one lines of writing, covering a space 58.4 cms. broad and 40.6 cms. high, and is in a good state of preservation, except that three letters in l. 15 are abraded, through they can be made out with certainty from the traces left. The mechanical execution is good ; the letters are bold and carefully formed and beautifully incised. The average height of the letters is about 1.2 to 1.5 cms.

The characters are Nāgarī, resembling those of the Surwāyā inscription that immediately precedes. Attention, however, may be drawn to the two forms of the vowel a in ajaśra- and Āsalla-, both in l. 4 ; to the subscript forms of chh and th, both of which are alike, as in achchha-and sthāna-, both in l. 16 ; to that of ṇ as subscript appearing as l, e.g., in pushṇati, l. 16, but not in utkīrṇṇa-, l. 21 ; and finally, to that of j which appears both in its antique and modern forms, e.g., in nija-tējas- in l. 7.

The language is Sanskrit ; and with the exception of a small sentence paying obeisance to Siva in the beginning and the concluding portion mentioning the name of the engraver and the date, the record is in verse. The total number of verses is 28, composed in all well-known metres ; but in verse 2 the rare metre known as padakulaka is employed. The style is fluent and the verses are often decorated with figures of speech, e.g., anuprasa (v. 5), rupaka (v. 13) and, upama (v. 24). In respect of orthography, the points that call for notice are : (1) the use of the sign for v to denote b as well, e.g., in vrahma-, l. 5 ; (2) the dipthongs denoted by the p?ish?ha- and also by the urdhva-matra ; (3) the occasional doubling of a consonant after r ; cf. dharmma-, l. 4, but not in varma-, l. 3 ; (4) the occasional use of the dental for the palatal sibilant, as in –sarmma, l. 4, and vice versa as in ajasra-, l. 4, an saroja-, l. 9 ; (5) the general tendency to put the sign of anusvara for the final class-nasal, with a few exceptions as in v. 9. The spellings a?hri in l. 9 and yajñe for jajñe in l. 10 exhibit the local element ; and (6) placing the da??a occasionally so close to the preceding letter as to look like an a-matra, e.g., at the end of l. 5.

There are a few mistakes of the engraver, e.g., rannē for ratnē in l. 2, śuschi for śuchi in l. 2, and raṇadvirēphaṁ in l. 18 ; all such errors are pointed out in the text below. The proper object of the inscription is to record that Palhadēva or Palhaja, who belonged to the Māthura clan of the Kāyasthas, constructed a dharma-śthāna (sacred place). He erected a temple of Śambhu (Śiva), but a stepped well and also laid out a garden in memory of and for the spiritual benefit of his younger brother who had predecased him. It is a praśasti, as the word is used in v. 27, and as such, it gives an account of the ancestors of Palhadēva and also
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^[1] For the description and archaeological remains found there, see as in above, No. 175.