North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

exactly a pillar, but rather a pilaster, the rough undressed faces of which were covered, and concealed from view, by some parts of an edifice, possibly the Teachers’ Shrine, referred to in the record. The pilaster was already an integral part of this shrine, when the inscription was engraved. This may be seen from the fact that the lines of the record run irregularly and that the second half of the Āryā verse with which it should have ended could not be engraved as no space was available for it on the shaft. This is possible only when the pilaster is in situ and the engraver had to suit himself somehow to the exigencies of the case.

       The writing occupies five of the faces with which the pillar is adorned, and is spread over a surface, about 2' 3" broad by 1' 6½" high. The record, on the whole, is not badly preserved. It may seem that some portion at the end is gone, as the last line contains only the first half of a verse in the Āryā metre. But, as will be seen subsequently, the second half of this Āryā verse could not be engraved, as there was no space available for it between the top and the base of the pillar. The case, however, is different in regard to the third of the five sides of the pillar, on which the record is engraved. Almost the whole of this part of the inscription is abraded and completely destroyed. This, indeed, is a grievous loss, because part of the most important matter contained in this interesting record is thus irrevocably lost of the historian, as we shall see in the sequel. The language is Sanskrit. And the inscription is in prose throughout, except for an Āryā verse at the close, only half of which could be engraved. In respect of orthography, the only points that call for notice are: (1) the doubling, throughout, of v (lines 5 and 10) , of y (lines 8, 12, 14, 15) and of t (lines 3), except in the word kīrti, in conjunction with a preceding r, and (2) the use of the jihvāmūlīya in line 12.

       The characters belong to the early Gupta period when they were practically identical with those of the Kushāṇa records. This is particularly significant inasmuch as our inscription is found at Mathurā, from where a number of Kushāṇa epigraphs have already come to light. In fact, it would have been well-nigh impossible to say that ours was a Gupta and not a Kushāṇa record, had it not contained the name of a Gupta king. Detailed remarks on this subject will be found in the article published in Epigraphia Indica mentioned above, while dealing with palaeography. There are, however, some minor palaeographic peculiarities in our inscription which call for notice here. The end m, in siddham, with which the inscription begins, looks, however, like the eastern variety of the Gupta m, though in all other cases it is represented by the other–earlier–form of the letter. That it is the ending m is indicated by its tiny shape. The h in mahārāja in line 1 is represented by a character which looks like u. Possibly its right limb remained unincised inadvertently. Though n is engraved in all other cases with the base-line bending slightly lower down on either side, the n in gurvvāyatanē in line 10 has a distinct loop on the left as in the later form of that character. This, however, is not unknown to the Kushāṇa records. The way in which components of the conjunct mbō are joined in sambōdhanaṁ (line 12) is worth nothing. The rare ṅ in viśaṅkam (line 13) and the Kuahāṇa forms of a and ā in lines 5 and 8 are also worthy of note. Similarly, the character for the numeral 60 in line 4 does not resemble any of the Gupta period shown by Bühler in cols. IX-X of his Tafel IX, but comes very close to that in column V of the Kshatrapa period ranging between the 2nd and the 3rd century A.D.

       The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Imperial Gupta king Chandragupta, son of Samudragupta. The titles coupled with each name are worth nothing. They are bhaṭṭāraka, mahārāja and rājādhirāja. The first of these, namely, bhaṭṭāraka is associated pretty frequently with the names of the Gupta sovereigns. But the other title which they almost invariably assume is mahārājādhirāja instead of what we have in the present record., viȥ., mahārāja rājādhirāja, an exact replica of mahārāja rājātirāja which the Kushāṇa kings bore. It is quite natural in Mathurā, which formed one of the most important districts of the Kushāṇa kingdom and