North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

(Verse 3) Observing and being alarmed that this whole world is evanescent, he acquired a mass of religious merit; and for (his own) bliss and for the welfare of (all) existing beings, having established, of stone, the five lords¹ who were originators (ādikartṛis)² in the path of the Arhats who practise restraint of mind, (he) thereupon planted (in the ground) this exceedingly beautiful and fame-contributing pillar of stone which resembles the tip of the summit of the chief of mountains.

NO. 30 : PLATE XXX

INDŌR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF SKANDAGUPTA : THE YEAR 146

       This inscription was discovered in 1874 by A.C.L. Carlleyle, First Assistant to the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India; and was first brought to notice, in the same year, in the JBAS., Vol. XLIII, Part I, pp. 363 ff., where a lithograph of it was published, prepared by General Cunningham (ibid., Plate xix), accompanied by a version of the text, and a translation of it, by Rajendralala Mitra. It was critically edited by J.F. Fleet in the CII., Vol. III, 1888, pp. 68 ff. and Plate IX B. One correction was pointed by F. Kielhorn in the Ind. Ant., Vol. XVIII, p. 219.

       The inscription is on a copper-plate which was found in a small stream at Indōr, the ancient Indrapura and Indrāpura of the inscription, a large and lofty mound about five miles to the north-west of Dibhāī,³ the chief town of the Dibhāī Pargaṇā in the Anupshahar⁴ Tahsil or Sub-Division of the Bulandashahar District in Uttar Pradesh. Until recent years, Indōr was a small inhabited village; but it is now only a khēḍā, or deserted mound and is not shown in maps. Fleet obtained the original plate, for examination, from the possession of General Cunningham.

        The plate is a single one, inscribed on one side only, measuring about 8-1/8’’ by 5-1/2’’ at the end 5-7/8’’ in the middle. The edges of it are here and there slightly thicker than the surface of the plate, with small depressions inside them at the same places; but there does not seem to have been any intention of purposedly fashioning the edges thicker all round, so as to serve as a rim to protect the writing.⁵ The surface of the plate is in some places a good deal corroded by rust; the inscription, however, with care, is legible with certainty throughout. The plate is fairly thick; but the letters, being rather deeply engraved, shew through distinctly on a great part of the back of it. The engraving is clean and well executed; the majority of the letters, however, shew, as usual, marks of the working of the engraver’s tool. There is no hole
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¹ Indrān. Bhagwanlal Indraji, in his published version, first pointed out the kind of meaning to be given to this word here (Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 126).
² Ādikartṛīn; lit. ‘originators.’ Bhagwanlal Indraji first pointed out the correct meaning of this word, as referring here to five of the Tīrthaṁkaras or sanctified teachers of the Jainas (Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 126 and note 16). See also SBE., Vol. XXII, pp. 224-25.
³ The ‘Dabhai, Dubhai, Dibai, and Dubhaee,’ of maps, etc. Indian Atlas Sheet, No. 67, Lat. 28⁰ 12' N.; Long. 78⁰ 18' E. The position of Indor, with reference to Dibhāī, as shown in the sketch map given in CASIR., Vol. XII, Plate i.
⁴ The ‘Anoopshuhur and Anupshahr’ of maps, etc.
⁵ Burnell allotted the earliest instances of arranging for the preservation of the writing on copper-plates, by beating up the margins round the plates and then flattering the edges, to the ninth or tenth century A.D. (South Indian Palaeography, p. 92). “But there are plenty of earlier instances,” says Fleet, “in the south, as well as in the north of India. These raised rims were obtained, at first, by thickening the plates at the edges, in the process of fashioning them. Afterwards, it became customary to beat the plates out quite smooth, and them to turn them up at the edges and fuse them together at the corners; and some of the Eastern Chalukya plates, made in this way, have raised rims a good quarter of an inch high.” It is, however, worthy of note that the edges of the Dāmōdarpur plates, noticed above (Nos. 22 and 24), have not been raised into rims for the protection of the writing.