North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

KAHĀUM STONE PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF SKANDAGUPTA : YEAR 141

the citizens with such honours as they deserved and (his) respectable servants and friends with presents;

       (Verses 35-37) In the first fortnight of the month (called Āshāḍha) and belonging to the hot season, on the first day, he, having put forth careful efforts and made an immeasurable expenditure of wealth, in two months, laboriously built up a hundred cubits in all in depth, and sixty-eight in breadth, and seven (?) men’s height in elevation (of the breach into the embankment) of two hundred cubits, having done honour to the kings, built with great labour, with stone well laid, (so that) the lake, not evil by nature, became renowned as Sudarśana¹ (of good appearance) for all eternity.

       (Verse 38) Agitated by the lower part of the body of the ruddy-geese,² the herons and the swans which have displyed their beauty on the edges of the firmly built embankment . . . . pure waters . . . . (so long as) the sun and the moon.

       (Verse 39) And may the city become affluent; teeming with citizens; bereft of sin through prayers sung by many hundreds of Brāhmaṇas, (and free) for a hundred years from distress such as those caused by calamities (like) famine . . . .

       (Line 23) Thus ends the literary composition of the restoration of the Sudarsana Lake.

       (Verse 40) . . . . (Skandagupta), who destroyed the haughtiness of the haughty enemies; who is great royal dignity; who is the foremost of his family; who is the lord of the whole earth; whose pious deeds are more wondrous than overlordship of kings.

       (Verse 41) By his son, who is endowed with his own good qualities; whose life has been dedicated at the feet of (the god) Gōvinda . . . .

       (Verse 43-45) And by that Chakrapālita, who is of a straightforward mind, who causes townsmen to bow down by his own prowess, having acquired there at the lotus-like feet of Vishṇu . . . . has been caused to be built a temple of (the god) Chakrabhṛit, who carries the discus . . . . with a great expenditure of wealth and after a long time, when one hundred and thirty-eight years (had elapsed) (according to the calculation) of the Gupta era.

       (Verse 46) . . . . . . . uprisen, as it were, from the mountain Ūrjayat, shines over the head of the town, manifesting, as it were, (its) lordship.

       (Verse 47) And another . . . . . over the head . . . . . shines, obstructing the path of the birds . . . . . .

No. 29: PLATE XXIX

KAHĀUM STONE PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF SKANDAGUPTA: THE YEAR 141

       This inscription appears to have been discovered by Francis Buchanan (Hamilton), whose Survey of the Provinces, subject to the Presidency of Bengal, was commenced in 1807 and was continued during seven years, and whose manuscript results were transmitted in 1816 to the Court of Directors of the East India Company. From his reports Montgomery
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¹ As in verse 31, there is a play here on the name of the lake. It had become durdarśana when there was a breach in the dam, but has become Sudarśana again, in accordance with its name, when the embankment was repaired. This play on the name Sudarśana is noticeable also in an earlier epigraph, namely, that of the Mahā-Kshatrapa Rudradāman, where, in line 8, we have durdarśa(nam=āsīt), and in line 16 (su)darśanataraṁ kāritaṁ (Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, pp. 43-44).
² Rathacharaṇa-samāhva . . . . . . āsa-dhūta is taken by Fleet to mean “agitated by the defiances of the ruddygeese,” Obviously, he understands ‘defiances’ by the term samāhva. But this is a mistake. Because sis synonymous with rathacharaṇa; and if rathāṅgāhvaya also means ‘the ruddy goose,’ there is no reason why rathacharaṇa-samāhva should not also bear the same sense. Similarly, āsa is taken by Fleet in the sense of āsita. ‘settling down.’ But āsa means ‘the lower part of the body behind, posteriors,’ Monier Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary. This suits here excellently.