North Indian Inscriptions

SUPPLEMENTARY INSCRIPTIONS

TEXT^[1]

No. 196 ; PLATE CLXXII
RĀSIN STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF PARAMARDIN
[ Vikrama ] Year 1466

RASIN, or Rāsin, is an old town situated on the high road leading from Bāndā to Kālañjar, 47 kms, distant from the former and about 30 kms. from the latter. The antiquities found at this place go to show that it must have been a place of considerable importance in former times.^[7] The present inscription was noticed here by Alexander Cunningham, in his visit to the town in 1884, on a temple of goddess, locally known as Chandā Māhēśvarī and situated in a dense jungle on the top of a hill, about a mile to the east of the town. The record was published by the same scholar, in his Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vol. XXI (1883-1885), p. 18, with a translation and a photo¬-lithograph, Plate No. XIV. From the same plate it is edited here.

The inscription consists of six short lines of equal length. The dimensions of the writing are not recorded, but it can be stated here that each of the lines has eight aksharas in it. The photo-lithograph shows that it was well preserved when seen by Cunningham. The alphabet in which it is written is Nāgarī of the fifteenth century. The language is Sanskrit, which is almost correct ; and except a verse in the Anushṭubh metre in the end, it is all in prose.

The epigraph is a pilgrim’s record, and its aim is to register the name of one Jaipāla, the son of Surapāla, who visited the place, apparently for paying homage to the deity enshrined in the temple where it is engraved. The date is given in figure only ; it is the seventh day of the bright half of Chaitra of the (Vikrama) year 1466, falling on a Saturday which, as calculated by Kielhorn, corresponds to Saturday, 23rd March, 1409 A.C.^[8]

The record begin with the date, as seen above, and then it proceeds to mention a person, without giving his name, who was the king’s slave in Rājavāsinī, the royal residence of Paramardin, the lord of the earth, whose slave was Jaipāla. The name of Paramardin is mentioned here without that of his family and also without any of his ancestors; and even his royal titles are missing. And for the reason that the record was found not very far from Kālañjar, he is likely to be identified with the homonymous Chandēlla king, the grandson of
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^[1] From an impression which is Chief Epigraphist’s A. R., No. B-194/69-70.
^[2] The daṇḍas may have been preceded by a symbol which is now lost.
^[3] Read either Vīdanasya or supply lasya after it. The names are all given without case-endings and there are some more grammatical errors throughout the record. They are not shown here and can easily be known.
^[4] The letters in the brackets are all mostly lost leaving only parts of them. The reading is probable in view of the sign of mātrā visible on the first of the letters. The word has been restored from Chakravarti’s writing.
^[5] The reading is probable but not certain. I am unable to explain the use of the following word also.
^[6] The unit figure which appears to have been later on corrected, may possibly have been 1 or 5, the vertical stroke of which is clear.
^[7] See Cunningham’s A. S. I. R., Vol. XXI, pp. 15 ff.
^[8] See Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, p. 355, No. 156. The year was the Northern Vikrama, expired.