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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS appointed by Jayadatta, along with Nagaraśrēshṭhin Ribhupāla, the Sārthavāha Vasumitra, the Prathama-Kulika Varadatta, and the Prathama-Kāyastha Viprapāla. We are further informed that of these latter, Ribhupāla, who is now called not Nagaraśrēshṭhin, but simply śrēshṭhin, applied to the Court of the Town for permission to purchase six kulyavāpas of building site (vāstu) on payment of the price at the usual rate of thre6e dīnāras a kulyavāpa. The object of this purchase of land was to erect on it two shrines and two store-rooms of the primeval gods Kōkāmukha-svāmin and Śvētavarāha-svāmin to whom four and seven kulyavāpas respectively had already been donated by the donor on the table-land of the Himālayas in the village of Ḍōṅgā. And further we are told that the application was granted with the approval of the record keepers Vishṇu-Datta, Vijaya-Nandin, and Sthāṇu-Nandin, after corroborating the statement of the owner’s former gift of eleven kulyavāpas mentioned in the application.
Kōkāmukha-svāmin and Śvētavarāha-svāmin are doubtless forms of Vishṇu. But where they were exactly situated it is difficult to say. R. G. Basak1 suspects that the first of these was connected with Kōkāmukha-tīrtha mentioned in the Harivaṁśa, Mahābhārata2 and Vāraha-Purāṇa.3 J. C. Ghosh is more positive on this point and locates it in that region where flow the rivers Kauśikī, Kōkā and the Trisrōtas specified in Chapter 140 of the Varāha-Purāṇa and answering “to the modern Kośi, Kaṅkāi and Tista in Northern Bengal.”4 Anybody who reads this chapter carefully will be convinced that the Kōkā emerges from the Himālayas. This agrees with the fact that the two gods mentioned in this plate were on the tableland of the Himālayas. The Varāha-Purāṇa, Chapter 140, verse 68, speaks of a sacred place called Daṁshṭrāṅkura just where the Kōkā emerges. This seems to be the location of Kōkāmukhasvāmin. In fact, the actual name Kōkāmukha occurs twice in the same Purāṇa, Chapter 122, verses 19 and 22 and Chapter 140, verse 4. The same Purāṇa, Chapter 140, verse 24 mentions Vishṇusaras as a place where Varāha pulled out the Earth with one stroke of the tusk. This appears to be the location of Śvētavarāha-svāmin. This perhaps explains why the Earth has been described in this inscription as liṅga-kshōṇī, ‘the Subtile Earth.’ From the names of the rivers Kauśikī, Kōkā and Trisrōtas, that is, the Sun Kōśi, Kaṅkāi and Tista, it is clear that the shrines of these gods were situated somewhere in Darjeeling and Sikkim. It thus appears that the Kōṭivarsha vishaya and Puṇḍravardhana bhukti extended as far northward as the Darjeeling and Sikkim region. Now, in Sikkim, there is what is called Dongkya Pass and Mount.5 And it seems tempting to suppose that the Ḍōṅgā of this record has survived in Dongkya. As these gods existed somewhere near the snowy Darjeeling and Sikkim Districts, it is no wonder if one image of the Boar Incarnation was called Śvētavarāha-svāmin. It looks that the images of these gods and the Earth were natural formations of the rock. This agrees with the fact that the gods have been called ādya or primeval in line 7 and the Earth described as liṅga-kshōṇī in line 8. ...................................................TEXT ...............................[Metres : Verses 1 to 3 Anushṭubh] .................................................First Side 1 . . . . . Phālguna di 10 [5] Paramadaivata-Paramabhaṭṭāraka-Mahārājādhirāja-śrī-
[Vudha][gu*]pt[ē*]6 [pṛithivī*] 1 Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, p. 140, note 3.
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