North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

that the fame having pervaded the entire surface of the world with (its) rise caused by the conquest of the whole earth, has acquired an easy and graceful movement¹ in that it has repaired from here (i.e., from this world) to the abode of (Indra)² the lord of the gods–(the fame) of that prosperous³ Samudragupta the Mahārājādhirāja,⁴ son of the prosperous Chandragupta (I), the Mahārājādhirāja, born of the Mahādēvī⁵ Kumāradēvī, (and)
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Of one of these names, he remarks–“Now it would have been exceedingly inconvenient if not impossible to have cut the name,.........., up and down at right angles to the other writing, while the pillar was erect, to say nothing of the place being out of reach, unless a scaffold were erected on purpose, which would hardly be the case since the object of an ambitious visitor would be defeated by placing his name out of sight and in an unreadable position” (JASB., Vol. VI, p. 967 f.). “But this particular name, “says Fleet, “with several of the others referred to by him, is in characters that are certainly of considerably later date than the Gupta inscription; and none of the names are in characters that are any earlier than the inscription.” Nevertheless, there are some letters which look earlier than those of the Gupta period. See e.g., the three characters which are engraved between lines 6 and 7 just at the beginning of these lines which are clear even in Plate I of Fleet’s volume and which are symbols for integers. The first is clearly 20 and the second 7. The third is somewhat indistinct. And they apparently belong to the Kshatrapa or Kushāṇa period. Nevertheless, I agree with Fleet in adopting “a translation that does not bind us to either view.”
¹ Bühler takes vicharaṇa in the sense of ‘path’ and observes that “the synonyms charaṇa, gamana and yāna are given in this sense in the Petersburg lexicon” (Ind. Ant., Vol. XLII, p. 174). But it is very doubtful whether any one of these words with the preposition vi can signify ‘a path.’ Secondly, if the primary sense of vicharaṇa, ‘free movement, ramble’ can fit here, it is unnecessary to go in for the secondary one.
² It is clear from this translation that what has gone to the abode of Indra is, not Samudragupta, as Fleet gratuitously assumes, but his Fame. This Fame, having already pervaded this world, had perforce to ascend to heaven to attain further scope. This is a poetic fancy often indulged in by Sanskrit poets. See, Introduction, p. 12.

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Fleet translates this passage thus: “This lofty column (is) as it were an arm of the earth, proclaiming the fame, –which, having prevaded the entire surface of the earth with (its) development that was caused by (his) conquest of the whole world, (has departed) hence (and now) experiences the sweet happiness attained by (his) having gone to the abode of (Indra) the lord of the gods,” etc. The points where he has gone wrong are: (I) the addition of (has departed)., and ‘(and now),’ (2) the rendering of vicharaṇa by ‘experiences,’ and, above all, the insertion of ‘(his),’ that is, of Samudragupta, before ‘having gone.’ Bühler’s translation is as follows: “This high pillar is, as it were, the arm of the earth raised up, which announces that the fame of Samudragupta, the illustrious lord of great kings, greatly augmented through the conquest of the whole earth, filled the whole surface of the earth, and found a lovely, happy path in that it wandered from this world to the palace of the lord gods” (Ind. Ant., Vol. XLII, p. 173). This rendering is a great improvement upon that of Fleet. Bühler is quite right in suggesting that the word uchchhrita goes not only with the pillar but also with the arm of the Earth. He is, however, wrong in taking vicharaṇa in the sense of ‘path’. It is true that charaṇa like its synonyms gamana and yāna has this sense as we find it in the Petersburg lexicon, but none of these words with the preposition vi is given in that sense in any lexicon or is known to possess it.
³ Śrī, ‘auspiciousness, glory, prosperity,’ and śrīmat, ‘possessed of auspiciousness, glory, prosperity,’ are frequently used as honorific prefixes to the names of deities, sacred works, holy men, eminent persons or well-known places, and have to be rendered accordingly. They can thus be safely rendered ‘holy’ in the case of gods. ‘saintly,’ of priests, teachers, etc., ‘famous’ of towns, and so forth. It is doubtful whether Fleet is correct in translating the word by ‘glorious’ in the case of paramount sovereigns and their wives, and ‘illustrious,’ of feudatories. It is best to designate them all by either ‘glorious’ or ‘prosperous’ without any invidious distinction such as never was intended in the case of rulers by the mere use of this honorific prefix. There is no such rule as that of using śrī before a consonant and śrīmat before a vowel, as Fleet thinks, for we meet with expressions not only like Śrī-Ādityasēnadēva as in Mandar Hill Rock Inscription (CII., Vol. III, 1888, No. 45, p. 212, line 1), but also like Śrimat-Suvarṇṇavarshadēva .........śrīmad-Vallabhanarēndradēvaḥ (Int. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 251, line 39.) as Fleet himself has pointed out. Nor can it be suggested that only śrī, not śrīmat, is used in the case of paramount sovereigns. Such a suggestion has been ably controverted by Fleet with a number of instances to the contrary.
⁴ Fleet takes it as equivalent to Mahārāj-ādhirāja and renders it by ‘supreme king of Mahārājas.’ It had better be understood to mean Mahā-rājādhirāja, “the great over-king of kings.” For the political significance denoted by this title, see above, Introduction, p. 2.
⁵ Mahādēvī seems to have been here used as the title of a wife of a paramount sovereign. It is curious that while derivatives of rājan such as Mahārāja and Mahārājādhirāja have been coined as titles of supreme rulers, neither rājñī nor its derivatives, but Mahādēvī is employed to denote their queen-consorts. The term rājñī was certainly in existence during this period, but signified ‘the wife of a ruler (rājan)’ and was not used as a title. Hence we find
.......................................................................................................................(contd. on p. 220)