North Indian Inscriptions

SUPPLEMENTARY INSCRIPTIONS

No. 188 ; PLATE CLXIV
A PARAMĀRA STONE INSCRIPTION FROM CHITRI
[Vikrama] Year 1314

THIS inscription is incised on a pillar in the vestibule of the marble-temple dedicated to the Sun-god in the villages of Varmān in the Sirōhī District of Rājasthān.^[6] The place lies along the main road from Dēvakhētar to Mandār, about five kms. south-west of Rēodhar, the principle town of a tehsīl in the district. The inscription was first referred to by V. S. Sukathankar in the Progress Report of the Western Circle of the Survey, ending 1917, p. 72. It is edited here, for the first time, from the original stone and inked impressions prepared in my presence by Shri N. M. Ganam, Technical Assistant of the Western Circle, who accompanied me in the tour.

The inscription, which is in a good state of preservation, contains six lines, the last of which is about three-fourth in length of the others. The writing covers a space measuring 25 cms. broad by 16 cms. high. The average size of the letters is about 2 cms. The characters are Nāgarī and the language is Sanskrit. As regards orthography, medial ē is indicated by both, the śirō-mātrā and the pṛishṭha-mātrā e.g., in Sōmē, ll. 1-2 ;Jyēshṭha is spelt as yēshṭha, in l. 1, -siṁha as sīmha in l. 3, and the influence of local element is visible in the last three lines.

The inscription refers itself to the auspicious and victorious reign of the illustrious Vikramasiṁha who is called here as belonging to the family of Mahārāja (Mahārāja-kula). The object is not clearly mentioned, though it appears to record some donation made to the temple, or, what is more likely, some repairs made to it, by Lalatadēva, which name has probably to be restored to Lalitādēvī, the wife of Chīchaï, or Chāchiga, about whom nothing is known from this or from any other record. This portion, which contains two abbreviations in l. 4, cannot be satisfactorily made out. The inscription also appears to be incomplete in the end.

The inscription begins with the date, which is the .fifth of the dark half of Jyēshṭha of the (Vikrama) year 1356, given in figures only, on a Monday. The date regularly corresponds to 9th May, 1300 A.C., taking the year as Southern Vikrama, expired, and the month beginning with the full-moon.

The record is silent about the name of the family to which Vikramasiṁha belonged, nor
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^[1] The sign of visarga has disappeared, leaving traces. The letter that preceds this sign is deformed,
also appearing as va or dha.
^[2] That is, Rāüta.
^[3] The reading of the first akshara in this line is not certain, the second is indistinct, and the third one has a vertical stroke on either side, appearing as the sign of either a pṛishṭha-mātrā, or of ā. Thus the reading of the first four letters in this line is uncertain.
^[4] This akshara, which may have been intended to be Ōṁ, as it appears also, is redundant.
^[5] This akshara also appears to have attached to it a mātrā, which was probably subsequently erased, but the sign is still there.
^[6] For the other inscription from the same place, see No. 61.