North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

BIHAR STONE PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF BUDHAGUPTA

       (Lines 5-9) Whereas this Śrēshṭhin Ribhupāla has applied, “In the village of Ḍōṅgā were formerly given by me, hoping for eternal benefit, four kulyavāpas (of land) not yielding (any revnue) to Kōkāmukha-svāmin, and seven kulyavāpas to Śvētavarāha-svāmin, on the tableland of the Himālayas, for the augmentation of spiritual merit. Now, on land in the neighbourhood of that cultivatable field I desire to erect two shrines, with the subtile Earth- bowing¹ (in front), and their two store-rooms, for these primeval (gods), Kōkāmukha-svāmin and Śvētavarāha-svāmin. Deign to make over six kulyavāpas of building site in accordance with the prevalent custom (of sale).”

       (Lines 9-15) Whereas it has been determined through the ascertainment of the record-keepers Vishṇu-Datta, Vijaya-Nandin and Sthāṇu-Nandin that it is a fact that by him were given eleven kulyavāpas of cultivatable field, not yielding (any revenue), to the same Kōkāmukha-svāmin and Śvētavarāha-svämin on the tableland of the Himālayas and whereas for the erection here of the shrines and store-houses in connection with them (the gods) he has properly applied for building-site being given him on land in the neighbourhood of the cultivable field, according to the prevailing custom of sale, namely, three dīnāras for one kulyavāpa . . . . . on the east of the lotus-pool . . . . . . . . . . to the south (of the cultivable field previously given by) Ribhupāla, were granted (six kulyavāpas).

       (Line 15) So these (kulyavāpas) should be respected by administrators in time to come. It has been said by Vyāsa :²

       (Verse 1) He, who takes away land given by himself or by others, having become a worm in excreta, rots with his forefathers.

       (Verse 2) Carefully preserve the land that has already been given to the twice-born (Brāhmaṇas), Yudhishṭhira, the best of land-owners. Preservation is more meritorious than grant (of land).

       (Verse 3) And land has been granted, again and again, by many kings. (But) the fruit of that (land) belongs to whosoever possesses the land at that time.

No. 41 : PLATE XLI

BIHAR STONE PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF BUDHAGUPTA

       This inscription appears to have been discovered by Ravenshaw, and to have been first brought to notice by him in 1839, in the JBAS., Vol. VIII, pp. 347 ff. From his remarks it appears that the column was originally found in front of the northern gate of the old fort of Bihar, but had been subsequently removed and set up “in a reversed position, with its base in the air, and its summit in the ground,” a little to the west of the same gate, where it was afterwards found, fallen, by General Cunningham. In 1866, In the JBAS., Vol. XXXV, pp.
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¹ For the interpretation of this passage, see the introduction of this inscription, p. 343 above. In regard to the word namat ‘bowing’ applied to kshōṇī, compare the phrase kṛit-āñjali-puṭā, applied to dharaṇī in the Varāha-Purāṇa, chapter 39, verse 26.
² Vyāsa, whose name, as well as his epithet of “arranger of the Vēdas,” is usually inserted in this passage, e.g., in line 13 of the Majhgawām grant of the Mahārāja Hastin of the year 191 (CII., Vol. III, 1888, No. 23, p. 108 and Plate). In the grants of Jayanātha (Ibid., No. 26, p. 119 and No. 27, 122), these verses are said to be from the Mahābhārata. And in line 19 of the Khōh grant of the Mahārāja Śarvanātha of the year 214 (Ibid., No. 31, p. 137 and Plate) it is also added that they are in the Śatasāhasrī-Saṁhitā of the Mahābhārata. These verses are nearly always attributed, in the inscriptions, to Vyāsa. But, in lines 27-28 of the Karnūl grant of the third year of Vikramāditya I (JBBRAS., Vol. XVI, p. 237), the verse commencing Bahubhir=vasudhā bhuktā, the second in the present inscription, with one other not in this inscription, is allotted to Manu; a point which may be of some interest in connection with Bühler’s discovery (see Ind., Ant., Vol. XVI, p. 324) that about one-tenth of Manu’s verses occur in the Mahābhārata.