North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

VIDIŚĀ STONE IMAGE INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMAGUPTA

13 m-ādi-karada-kuṭumbi-kāruk-ādayaḥ pravēśayitavyā ma(a)nyathā niyatamā(m=a)gra-
14 hār-ākshēpa[ḥ*] syād=iti [||*] Sama(mva)t¹ 9 Vaiśākha di 10 [||*]
15 Anya-grām-ākshapaṭalādhikṛita-Dyūta-Gōpasvāmy-ādēśa-likhitaḥ² [||*]

TRANSLATION

       (Line 1) Ōm ! Hail ! From the great camp of victory, containing ships, elephants and horses and situated at Ayōdhyā.

       (Lines 1-7) The prosperous Samudragupta, the Mahārājādhirāja . . . addresses to the pre- eminent (officers) attached to the Treasury of the village and the Brāhmaṇas in the village of Rēvatikā belonging to the Gayā district.

       (Lines 8-11) “And be (this) matter known to you! For the sake of augmenting the spiritual merit of (my) parents and of myself, this village has been granted by me, as an agrahāra, to a religious fellow-student, the Brāhmaṇa Gōpasvāmin,³ of the Bhāradvāja gōtra (and) the Bahvṛicha (sakha)

       (Lines 11-14) You should therefore listen to him; and (his) commands should be obeyed. And all dues in accordance with the customary law of the village should be paid, such as can be measured, gold, and so forth. And, from this time forth, the tax-paying cultivators, artisans etc., of other villages should not be allowed to enter by this Agrahārika; (for) otherwise there will be a lapse of the agrahāra.”

       (Lines 14-15). The year 9; the day 10 of Vaiśākha. Drawn up by the order of the Dūtaka Gōpasvāmin, the Akshapaṭalādhikṛita of Anyagrāma.

No. 5 A, B and C : PLATE V

VIDIŚĀ STONE IMAGE INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMAGUPTA

       These three inscriptions, called here A, B and C, are engraved on the pedestals of three Jaina images which were discovered at the Durjanapura village in the Vidiśā District of Madhya Pradesh in 1968. They are now kept in the Museum at Vidiśā. The three images containing the inscriptions were found while clearing a field in the above village with a bulldozer which has caused damage to them and to the inscriptions on the pedestals. While the inscription on A is well-preserved and complete, that on B has suffered damage in the last two lines and the inscription on C is completely effaced, though some words and letters can be traced with difficulty in the first two lines with the help of A and B. Two of these inscriptions were first published by Dr. G.S.Gai in the JORI., Vol. XVIII (1969), pp. 218 ff. and plates while all the three inscriptions were edited by him in Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 46 ff. and plates.

       The inscriptions are in Gupta characters of about the 4th century A.D. The alphabet closely resembles that of the Sāñchī inscription⁴ of Chandragupta II dated in the Gupta year 93 and to some extent that of the Ēraṇ inscription⁵ of Samudragupta. The individual letters like u, k, g, n, p, bh, m, y, r, l, ś, s and h appearing in the inscriptions on A and B are very similar to these letters in the Sāñchī inscription. The letters like y, r, l and s also resemble those in the Ēraṇ inscription of Samudragupta. And the letters m, r, l and h are of the so-called
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¹ As regards the interpretation of the first symbol, see page 229 above, note 3.
² Supply ullēkhō=yam, or any similar words.
³ [See p. 230 note 13 above.–Ed.].
⁴ CII., Vol. III, 1888, pp. 25 ff. and plate.
⁵ Ibid, pp. 18 ff. and plate.