South Indian Inscriptions

INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI

along the margin on the left. In addition to these, there is one more line incised recently to record the date (Vikrama) Samvat 1981, which runs parallel to the original marginal line. As stated before, the inscription is fragmentary. Nothing is, of course, lost at the top, the bottom and the left-hand side ; but on the right hand-side, sixty to seventy aksharas have been lost in each line. The record, when entire, must have occupied a space4’ 6” in breadth. Of this, only about a fifth portion on the left has been preserved and the remaining four-fifths broken away and lost. The average size of the letters is .8”.

The characters belong to the Nāgarī alphabet. They have been deeply and beautifully cut. The strokes of the medial vowels have, here and there, been ornamentally treated. As regards individual letters, attention may be drawn to the two forms of ņ, one in –Lakshmaņarāja-, 1. 14 and the other in Druhiņah, 1. 2 etc. and to those of gh in =Amōghavarsha-, 1. 12 and Ghat-ānvaya-, 1.14. The form of g is in many places closely similar to that of rā, compare g in jagat and drāg=ēva both in 1.2, Nāgabhatē in 1.9 etc., with rā in yair= āsantati in 1.6; th has not yet developed a vertical stroke at the top, see pariluthantī, 1.4. Similarly th is still circular and not flattened on the right side, see, pŗithuni-, 1.4. The medial u has been generally denoted by a serif, (see pāyāsur=, 1.3 ; nag-ānukāri 1.13 etc.), but in some cases, by a curve turned to the left as in kshiņōtu, 1.2. The mātrās for medial diphthongs generally appear above the line (see namō= and -ōpēndra,- 1.I), but in two cases, viz., in –Rudrēbhyah, 1.1 and śrī-Lakshmaņa-rājadēvē, 1.14, the medial ē is obtained by continuing the top stroke of the consonant to the left to end in a small curve; while in two others we see fully developed prishtha-mātrās also, (see -vēdhō-, 1.3 and pādau 1.12). The characters thus show a transitional stage of the Nāgarī alphabet and may be referred to the ninth century A.C.¹

The language is Sanskrit. Except for the introductory obeisance and the marginal line recording the date etc., the record is metrically composed throughout. It seems to have originally consisted of thirteen verses. As regards orthography, we may note that the consonant preceding and following r has in certain cases been doubled as in chāturvarņņyam, I. 1, and –māttram, 1.2 ; v has been used for b in vala-, 1.7 and the guttural nasal for anusvāra in kshīņ-ānhasō, 1.6.

Owing to the unfortunate loss of a major portion of the record, it is not possible to give a complete description of its contents. After the introductory obeisance to Druhiņa (Brahmā), Upēndra (Vishņu) and Rudra (Śiva) come three verses, invoking the blessings of the three deities. Lines 6 and 7 seem to eulogize some persons possessed of strength, wealth, gaity, liberality and courtesy. The next line refers to some personage, who was to great kings what the fall of a thunderbolt is to high mountains. The ninth line mentions the rout of Nāgabhata, while the eleventh refers to some saintly person whose mind was devoted to the observance of the rules of conduct laid down in the Śruti and the Smŗiti. From the twelfth line we learn that the illustrious king Amōghavarsha bowed to the feet of someone who was probably identical with the saintly person mentioned above. Finally, the marginal line states that the record was composed by Prasannāditya of the Ghata family in the year 593 (expressed in numerical figures only) during the reign of the king, the illustrious Lakshmaņarājadeva.

The late Rai Bahadur Hiralal, who first noticed the inscription, read the date as 6932 and as it evidently refers to the Kalachuri era, which was current at least from the ninth to the twelfth century A.C. in Baghelkhand, he took it as equivalent to 941 A. C.,
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¹ The form of j, d, p, r and v, all of which show considerable development here, leave no doubt that the present record is much later than the preceding inscriptions (No. 35 and 36)of the reign of Śankaragaņa 1.
² I. C. P. B., p. 45.