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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI No. 60; THE stone which bears this inscription was procured by Dr. F. E. Hall in 1857 at BhērāGhāt on the Narmadā in the Jabalpur District of Madhya Pradesh, and subsequently presented by him to the American Oriental Society, in whose Cabinet at New Haven, it is now deposited. It is a plain block of green stone, of a soft texture and easily cut, 2’ 9½” broad by 1’ 10½” high. The inscription was first edited, with an English translation and notes, by Dr. Hall in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. VI, pp. 499 f. 1; and Dr. Hall’s text was afterwards reprinted in Roman characters, with a photozincograph of the inscription in Dr. Burgess’ Memoranda, Archæological Survey of Western India, No. 10, pp. 107-9 ; and his translation in Sir A. Cunningham’s Archæological Survey of India Reports, Vol. IX, pp.91-94.2 The inscription was finally edited by Dr.Kielhorn, with an English translation but without a lithograph, in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II, pp. 7 f. It is edited here from excellent large-size photographs which were, at the Government Epigraphist’s request, kindly supplied by the authorities of the American Oriental Society.
The inscription, consisting of 29 lines of writing, covers a space of about 2’ 7½”
broad by 1’ 9” high. The letters are beautifully and carefully cut, the anusvāras, curves
and mātrās in the first line being ornamentally treated. Except for two aksharas each at
the end of lines 11 and 12, which are almost completely broken away, and one or two others
here and there which are partially damaged, the inscription is in a state of good preservation. The size of the letters varies from .4” to .7”. The characters are Nāgarī and resemble those of the Tewar inscription of Bhāvabrahman. The sign of the initial i in 11 . 7, 17
etc. has its two dots at the top joined by a curve, instead of a straight line;3 th and dh exhibit
transitional forms, the former having its upper loop open in some cases (see, e.g., tathā,
1.25 and –Prithu-, 1.29) and the latter appearing with a fully developed left member in
dhar-āśraya-, 1.3 =vyadhattām, 1.25, etc.; in other cases, these letters retain their earlier
forms ; n is still without its dot, see, e.g., -dinmandalī, 11. 27-28; the sign of the jihvāmūl‾ya occurs in 1.9 and that of the upadhmān‾ya in 1.10. The language is Sanskrit and except
for ōm namah Śivāya in the beginning and the date at the end, the inscription is metrically
composed throughout. There are thirty-seven verses in all. Though written in a good
style, the inscription is not altogether free from mistakes. Thus chakapē in 1.10 is
used for the correct form chakampē to suit the metre ; vyadhattām, which is intended as a
form of the Imperative, is incorrect for vidhattām, and in chandimatām 1.9, there is a superfluous addition of a second taddhita affix to form an abstract noun. Finally, rules of
sandhi have been violated in kim=vā 1.2, yushmān=śarīraih, 1.3, and sarvv-ādāyaih=ssārdham,
11.24-25. As regards orthography, b is in some cases denoted by its proper sign, see, e.g.,
babhūva and vibudhā-, both in 1.8, bibhraty=, 1.10, and in others by that of v, see vuddhim = 1.I,
vibhrat, 1.6 etc.; the palatal ś is used for the dental s in satāla, 1.14, and the dental nasal
for anusvāra in the component sinha of the proper names Vairisinha, 1.16, Vijayasinha,
1.17, Narasinha, 1.21, Jayasinha, 1.22 and Vālasinha, 1.29, and also in –sudhānśuh, 1.18, =sansatsu, 1 The committee of publications corrected some of the mistakes in Hall’s transcript while the
paper was going through the press. It is noteworthy that the mention of the Paramāra king Udayāditya
in the present inscription enabled Hall to conjecture for the first time that the dates of the present and
other inscriptions of the Kalachuris refer to an era which commenced about 250 A.C.
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