North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

second part of these two names, i.e., īśvara, shows that it was the liṅgas that were installed. The first part of these, i.e., Upamita and Kapila, are the names of the teacher and the teacher’s teacher of Uditāchārya. It therefore seems that the latter established two liṅgas, one in the name of Upamita and the other in the name of Kapila. We have numerous instances of persons setting up idols of Vishṇu or Śiva either in their own name or in their father’s or mother’s name.¹ It is therefore no wonder that Uditāchārya put up two liṅgas in the name of his teacher and teacher’s teacher. What is, however, noteworthy here is that he installed the liṅgas in a place called Gurv-āyatana which can only mean “the Teachers’ Shrine.” As none of the gurus of the line to which Uditāchārya pertained was then alive, the Gurv-āyatana can only denote the place where the memorials of the gurus were established. And we know from this inscription What sort of memorial were set up by Uditāchārya in the names of his gurus. They were liṅgas called individually after them. The inference is reasonable that Gurv-āyatana was a place where liṅgas were installed in the names of all the teachers who preceded Uditācharya.

       But what was this Gurv-āyatana like exactly? As has been pointed out above, we have epigraphic evidence to show that in the Kushāṇa times dēvakulas or shrines were raised to the memory of the departed kings.² The custom seems to have persisted in India up till the Rajput period. Thus at Maṇḍor, six miles north of Jodhpur, we have a number of structures, commemorative of the various kings of the Rāṭhōḍ family of this place, which look like temples and which are known locally as dēvlāṁ (=dēvakulas).³ The term Gurv-āyatana , however, occurring in our inscription does not indicate the different memorial structures existing side by side and separately in one huge enclosure as is customary in Rajasthan. It denotes rather one huge edifice comprising different memorials to the different teachers. It is thus more like the pratimā-gṛiha, described by Bhāsa in his drama Pratimānāṭaka, which is “a royal gallery of portrait statues” pertaining to the different princes of the Ikshvāku family.⁴ Gurv-āyatana may thus be taken as a shrine comprising the liṅgas set up in the name and to the memory of gurus of that lineage to which Uditāchārya belonged. It may be contended that the resemblance here is not complete unless we could show that these liṅgas were identical with or contained the portraits of the departed gurus. It has to be admitted that there is some force in this contention. For, in line 10, immediately after Gurv-āyatana , we have the two letters guru which were originally followed by at least five letters that have unfortunately been effaced. It is worthy of note that guru is again engraved immediately after Gurvv-āyatanē and it may be asked whether the letters destroyed cannot be restored so as to answer to this presumption. We do not think we shall be very wide off the mark if we restored the lacuna to guru-pratimā-yutau. The liṅgas, established, not only were named after the gurus Upamita and Kapila but must also have borne their portraits.

       Further, it is worthy of note, that the inscription specifically mentions Uditāchārya as daśama or tenth in descent from Kuśika and fourth from Parāśara. While the teachers intervening between Parāśara and Uditāchārya are mentioned and are only two, those between Kuśika and Parāśara are not mentioned at all though they were no less than five. In fact, there was no
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¹ Thus the Gurjara-Pratīhāra prince Mathanadēva founded an image of Iśvara (Śiva) called Lachchhukēśvara after his mother Lachchhukā (Ep. Ind.,Vol. III, p. 266, line 8). The shrine of Śiva established near a monastery by Nōhalā, queen of the Kalachuri king, Yuvarāja I-Kēyūravarsha, is styled Nōhalēśvara (Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 262, line 32). Similarly, the god Nārāyaṇa for whom a temple was built at Dēgāṁve by the Kadamba queen Kamalādēvī was called Kamala-Nārāyaṇa (Bcm. Gaȥ., Vol. I, pt. ii, p. 569). Kēśava, a general of the Chaulukya king Jayasiṁha instituted Gōga-Nārāyaṇa for the good of his mother (Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 159, lines 7-8). Likewise, Alla, son of Vāillabhaṭṭa, constructed a temple of Vishṇu called Vāillabhaṭṭasvāmin (Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 159, line 6).
² Introduction, p. 138; JRAS., 1924, p. 403, lines 1-3; A.R ASI., 1911-12, p. 124, line 3.
³ PRAS., W. C., 1906-7, p. 31, para 21.
⁴ Pratimānāṭaka (Triv. Sk. Series, No. 13), p. 44 ff. (M.R. Kale’s edn., Bombay, 1930, pp. 34 ff.).