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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE YAJVAPALAS OF NARWAR The letters are carefully drawn and incised, but the surface of the stone on the proper right side has irregularly peeled off or worn here and there, resulting in the loss of number of the aksharas in each of the lines, the loss being greater in ll. 7-10 where almost the first half in each has disappeared. Nothing, however, is lost on the proper left side. The average height of the letters is about 1∙5 cms. The characters are Nāgarī, bearing a general resemblance to those of the preceding record but showing angular bends. Worth noting is the fully developed form of ch, e.g., in chaṁdra, l. 3, and that of dh, with its horn bent in some instances as in Dhār-, l. 11, but not in the same word in l. 5 ; that of the slightly different forms of bh, as in –abhūta- and bhaṭa, both in l. 4 ; the slightly different forms of ś in śuchi- and śyāma-, both in l. 10 ; and lastly, that of s, which is devoid of the tail on the left limb, as in asti, l. 9. The language of the record is Sanskrit, which is generally correct, and except a small sentence in the beginning which invokes the blessings of Gaṇapati, the whole of the extant portion of the inscription is in verse, containing 22 verses and a part of the next verse, as stated above. The verses are all numbered though we find that some of the numerical figures are lost with the aksharas which have now peeled off. In spite of the fact that the engraver has done his work with care, arbitrary strokes of the chisel have in some instances changed the forms of letters, e.g., in prasādāt, l. 1, the third letter appears as dvā, and in kurvvati, l. 8, the second letter has become rdva.
The orthography shows the usual peculiarities, e.g., (1) throughout v is written for b also, as in vala- and valavān-, both in l. 12 ; (2) the occasional use of the dental for the palatal sibilant as in śivāy = ādisatāṁ, l. 2, in which only the second of the sibilants wrongly takes the place of the palatal ; (3) the doubling of a consonant following r, e.g., in Durggā-, l. 9 ; (4) the use of the pṛishṭha-mātrā; (5) the anusvāra generally serving the purpose of a nasal, except in a few cases, e.g., in nīlāṁ-, l. 1 and khaṇḍa-, l. 2 ; and lastly, the spelling of the word ujjvala in l. 2, with a single j, is noteworthy. The kāka-pada sign is put at the end of some of the lines, to show that the word is completed in the next line. The inscription, in its present form, contains no date ; and since it is incomplete, its object cannot be definitely known, though it may be surmised that it was to record some meritorious work like the excavation of a step-well, as to be found in some other inscriptions of the time of the Yajvapāla kings.[1] The first two verses of it invoke the blessings of the gods Murāri (Kṛishṇa) and Vāṇī (Sarasvatī), as we find also of verse 2 of inscription No. 175, below ; and the expression saurājya-bhāsura in its verse 9 is also used in a similar context in one of the inscriptions of the house (No. 161). This fact led Dr. Sircar to suggest that the record, like both of them, belongs to the reign of Āsalla’s son Gōpāla, and was probably composed by Śivanābha, the same poet who drafted the other two records just referred to. Following this suggestion, we may also conjecture that the name of Gōpāla may have been mentioned (in its short form Gopa) in verse 7. Beginning with the customary obeisance to Gaṇapati, in a small sentence as said above, the inscription invokes the blessings of Murāri (Kṛishṇa) and Vāṇī, respectively in the first two of its verses. The third verse mentions a vishaya (territorial division), the name of which is lost but can be made out on the basis of the preceding record as Pādōnalaksha. The next five verses are devoted to tracing the genealogy of the ruling house. The name of the first of the kings is lost in verse 4, but he was undoubtedly Chāhaḍa since the following verse mentions his son Nṛivarman, who is known from the preceding record.
Verse 5 of the inscription is historically important. It states that Nṛivarman vanquished
the proud king of Dhārā and exacted tribute from him. This statement cannot be verified,
and therefore the details thereof can only be conjectured. The Balvan inscription of the
Chāhamāna Hammīra, dated V.S. 1345, tells us that his father Jaitrasiṁha harassed a king
named Jayasiṁha in Maṇḍapa ;[2] and we have seen above that this Jayasiṁha was no other than
the king Jayavarman II of Dhārā, whose earliest inscription is dated V.S. 1312 or 1256 A.C.[3]
1 See below, Nos. 161, 175 and 179. They were all composed by the poet Śivanābha, suggested that like
them all, the present inscription too may have been composed by the same poet, as held by Dr. Sircar. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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