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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI (Line 29 ) (In) the year 907, (the month) Mārgaśīrsha (and) the bright (fort night), on the ( lunar) day 11, on Sunday. No. 61; THIS inscription was discovered in 1873-74 by Sir Alexander Cunningham, who published a transcript of it together with a photozincograph in the Archaological survery of India Reports, Vol. IX, p.94 and Plate II. The record was subsequently edited, without any lithograph or translation, by Dr. Kielhorn in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XVIII, pp.211-12. It is edited here from inked estampages kindly supplied by the Director General of Archaeology. The inscription is rudely engraved on a piece of rock on the top of a hill called Lāl-Pahād near Bharhut, in the State of Vindhya Pradesh. It contains eight lines, of which the last is separated from the rest by some distance. The writing of the first seven lines covers a space 17½” in height; the first three lines are 2’6”, the next four 1’ 9½” and the last 1’ 4” in length. The inscription is in a state of good preservation. The size of the letters varies from 1.2” to 2.5â.
The characters are Nagari. Attention may be drawn to the forms of r, one of which shows a horizontal line and the other a loop on the left, and of dh in âpad-anndhyat-, 1.2, and âMaharajadhiraja-, 1.1; s and bh appear everywhere in the modern Nagari forms. The language is Sanskrit. As regards orthography, we may note that b is denoted by the sign for v as inVallaladevakasya, 1.6 and the dental s is used for the palatal s in all cases except Sri. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Narasimhadēva of the Later Kalachuri Dyansty. He is described as Paramabhaţţāraka, Mahārādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the lord of Trikalińga, who by his own arm had acquired the suzerainty over the three kings, viz., the lord of horses, the lord of elephants and the lord of men, and who meditated on the feet of the Paramabhaţţāraka, Mahārādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the illustrious Vāmadēva. The object of the inscription is to record the construction of a vaha or water-channel by Ballāladēvaka (or Rāuta1 Ballāladēva as he is called in the last line), the son of the illustrious Kayavāditya,2 Mahārājaputra of the village Vadyavā. This Kayavāditya seems to have been a high official of the king Narasimhadēva, during whose reign the inscription was engraved. The inscription is dated, in line 7, in the year 909 (expressed in numerical figures
only) of an unspecified era, on the fifth tithi of the bright half of Śrāvaņa, on wednesday. The date must of course be referred to the Kalachuri era. According to the
epoch of 247-47 A.C., there were two Śrāvaņas in the expired Kalachuri year
909. Of these the first of adhika Śrāvaņa is evidently intended here; for the fifth tithi
of the bright half of it ended 16h. 20 m. after mean sunrise on Wednesday, the corresponding Christian date being the 2nd July 1158 A.C.3 1 Rāuta (Rājaputra) and Mahārājaputra appear to be titles of officials.
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