North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

NALANDA CLAY SEAL OF VAINYAGUPTA

12 [tta][ḥ|*] tad-bhrātṛi(tā) Vargga[ḥ |*] ta[d-bhrā]ta(tā) Chchha(Chha)ndaka . . .¹ [| *]
13 sva-puṇy-āpyāyan-ārthaṁ yaśaḥ-kī-
14 [rtti]-pravardha[ya*]māna-gōttra-śailikā bala-ya-
15 shṭḥi(shṭiḥ) pratishṭhāpitā Vargga-grāmikēṇa
16 Jē(Jyē)shṭha-māsē śukla-pakshaya dvitī-
17 [yāyāṁ] ti[thau] [|| *]

TRANSLATION

       (Line 1) The illustrious Ghaṭōtkacha. In his family . . .

       (Line 2-4) Prosperous Samudragupta the mahārāja; his son, the prosperous Vikramā- ditya (i.e. Chandragupta II), the mahārāja; his son, the prosperous Mahēndrāditya (i.e. Kumāragupta I), the mahārāja; his son,

       (Lines 4-9) The prosperous Skandagupta, the mahārāja (who) resembled a Chakravartin in strength and valour, Rāma in righteous conduct and Yudhishṭhira in truthfulness, conduct and humility. In his regnal year one hundred exceeded by fortyone, when in this detailed order of the date,

       (Line 9-12) Śrīdatta, son of Hari-śrēshṭhin and grandson of Kaivartti-śrēshṭhin, (was) the husbandman residing at Avaḍara, his brother (was) Vargga, his brother (was) Chhandaka;

       (Line 13-15) (This) bala-yashṭi (i.e. memorial pillar) (called) gōtra-śailikā (i.e. family- stone) was erected by Varga-grāmika for the increase of his own merit, glory and fame,

       (Line 16-17) On the second day of the bright half of the month of Jyēshṭha.

NO. 33 : PLATE XXXIII

NALANDA CLAY SEAL OF VAINYAGUPTA

       This seal bearing an inscription of Vainyagupta was picked up like those of Buddhagupta, Narasimhagupta and Kumāragupta III (Nos. 42, 44 and 45 below) in the course of the exca-vation to Monastery site No. 1 at Nālandā, in the Patna District, Bihar, in 1927-28. It remained unnoticed except for a brief reference to its discovery by Hirananda Sastri in the Ep. Ind., Vol. XXI, p. 77, postscript. Later on the published it in his Memoir on Nalanda and its Epigraphic Material.² p. 67. This seal, like the others, was originally a clay impression which was eventually burnt into terracotta in the circumstances mentioned below on page 355.

       Unfortunately the seal is a mere fragment. The whole of it is broken off except the middle portion of its lower surface which is preserved in the shape of a triangle. The extant fragment measures 2-⅛” at the base and is 2-¼” in height. The seal was oval in shape as seems from the curvature of the rim preserved. Its upper part which presumably contained some device and an indefinite number of lines is entirely broken off. The seal in its present fragmentary state contains five lines of prose writing. Of the first line nothing expect a ligature remains. The second, third and fourth lines have each lost some letters both at the beginning and at the end. Only the last one seems to be completely preserved. From the analogy of the other Gupta seals from Nālandā to which it bears strong affinity, it is not unlikely that also originally contained eight lines of writing. The characters which are executed in relief are well formed
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¹ [D. C. Sircar thinks that two letters are lost after Chhandaka and restores them as ⁰ ś=ch=ēti. But actually there are three letters which appear to read as Śalavyāṁ, probably referring to a place-name.—Ed.]
² MASI., No. 66.