North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

        The plate, which is inscribed on one side only, measures about 8" by 7⅛". It is quite smooth, the edges having been neither fashioned thicker, nor raised into rims. About half-way down the proper left side, the plate has laminated rather seriously; and there is also a small crack just below this place, and another in the top of the plate, in the word vāsakāt; but, except at these places, the inscription is in a state of perfect preservation almost throughout. The plate is fairly thick and substantial, and the letters, which are shallow, do not shew through on the reverse side of it at all. The engraving is fairly good; but, as usual, the interiors of the letters shew marks of the working of the engraver’s tools throughout. Onto the proper right side of the plate, there is fused a seal, oval in shape, about 27/8" by 3/8". It has, in relief on a countersunk surface, at the top, Garuḍa, represented as a bird, standing to the front, with outstretched wings; and, below this, a legend in five lines, which, being also in relief, is so worn out, that nothing of it can be read except a few disconnected letters here and there, and Sam[u]drag[u]p[taḥ], very faintly, at the end of line 5. It must have contained a succinct recital of the geneology, after the fashion of the Aśīrgaḍh seal of Śarvavarman¹ and the Sōnpat seal of Harshavardhana.² The weight of the plate, with the seal, is 2 lbs. 10 oz. The average size of the letters is 3/16". The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets. They include, in line 14, forms of the numerical symbols for 9³ and 10. The language is Sanskrit; and the inscription is in prose throughout. In line 3-4, we have, instead of the usual expression utsanna, the word uchchhanna, which, as used here, is, according to Sir Monier Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary, a Prakrit corruption of the Sanskrit utsanna. In respect of orthography, we have to notice (1) the doubling of t throughout, in conjunction with a following r, e.g. in prapauttrasya, line 4; pittōr, line 8; and sagōttrāya, line 9; (2) the doubling of dh, in conjunction with a following y, in Ayōddhyā, line 1; (3) the occasional use of b for v, in bō, line 8, and sambat, line 14; and (4) the use of v for b in vrāhmaṇa, lines 7 and 10; vahvṛichāya, line 9; and savrahmachāriṇē, lines 9-10.

       The inscription purports to be of the Imperial Gupta king Samudragupta, and to record a charter issued from his camp at the city of Ayōdhyā.⁴ It purports to be dated, in numerical symbols,⁵ in the year nine (A.D. 328-29), on the tenth solar day, without any specification of the fortnight, of the month of Vaiśākha (April-May). It is a non-sectarian inscription; the object of it simply being to record the grant to a brāhmaṇa, ostensibly by Samudragupta, of the village of Rēvatikā in the Gayā vishaya.

       The legend on the seal of this grant is in characters which present a very different appearance to those of the body of the inscription; as also does the copper of the seal, as compared with the substance of the plate; and the seal is in all probability a genuine one of Samudragupta, detached from some other plate. The inscription itself, however, is spurious, according to Fleet. His remarks on the subject have been quoted in the previous inscription. “It is difficult” says he “to suggest any definite time for the fabrication of this grant; on the one side, some of the characters are antique, e.g. the forms of k, p, m, and r, and particularly h; on the other side, others are comparatively modern, especially the sh in valatkaushabhyām,
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¹ CII., Vol. III, 1888, p. 219 ff.
² Ibid., pp. 231 ff.
³ The symbol which Fleet takes to be meant for 9, was interpreted by Cunningham as 40. But it certainly is not 40. It resembles most the decimal figure 2. But the day of the month is distinctly marked by a form of the numerical symbol for 10. This shows that the sign here also is intended for a numerical symbol; and the only symbol to which it approximates, is that for 9.
⁴ The modern Ajōdhyā or Ajudhyā (the ‘Oudh or Ajoodhia’ of the Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 87), Lat. 26⁰ 48' N., Long. 82⁰ 14' E., on the south bank of the river Ghāgra or Ghōgra. about four miles north-east of Faizābād, the Chief town of the Faizabad District in Uttar Pradesh.
⁵ See note 3 above.