North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

Cunningham has named “the Chandragupta Cave.”¹ The inscription is on the upper part of a smoothed and countersunk panel, about 2’ 4-½” broad by 1’ 6” high, over two figures, one of the four-armed god Vishṇu, attended by his two wives; and one of a twelve-armed goddess, who, according to Fleet, is some form of Lakshmī. Cunningham, however, seems to be right in taking her to be Mahishāsuramardinī, as she is represented as holding the buffalo-demon by the heels and treading upon his head, which are sculptured on the face of the rock, outside the cave and a few feet to the north of the entrance to it. On the south is another figure of standing Vishṇu.

        The writing which covers a space of about 2’ 3-½” broad by 4-¾” high, is in a state of fairly good preservation. The surface of the rock has peeled off in some places; but no letter are entirely destroyed, except the g of Chandragupta in line 1, and in line 2, the first two aksharas of the name of the Mahārāja whose gift is recorded. The average size of the letter is about 9”. The characters belong to the western variety of the Gupta alphabet, and combine with a ‘box-headed’ variety, peculiar to Central India ; but, in this inscription, there are no instances in which enough remains of the square centre of the tops of the letters to show distinctly in the lithograph. The ending m is indicated by the usual character of the letter but engraved dimunitively, once in siddham and another time in ēkādaśyām, both in line 1. Line 1 also includes forms of the numerical symbols for 2 and 80. The language is Sanskrit; and the inscription is in prose. In respect of orthography, the only point that calls for notice, is the doubling of dh in conjunction with a following y, in anuddhyāta, line 1.

        The inscription refers itself to the reign of Chandragupta II of the Imperial Gupta dynasty. It is dated, partly in numerical symbols and partly in words, in the year² eighty-two (400-01 A.D.), and on the eleventh lunar day of the bright fortnight of the month of Āshāḍha. The cave appears to be a Vaishṇava one, as on both sides of the entrance there is a figure of standing Vishṇu. And the object of the inscription is to record the excavation of the same as a temple to that god, and not the mere gift of the two sculptures above which it is engraved, as Fleet has understood it,—by a Mahārāja of the Sanakānika³ tribe or family, who was a feudatory of Chandragupta II, but whose name, in line 2, is now illegible. His grandfather was the Mahārāja Chhagalaga, which name, according to A.M.T. Jackson, ‘has a Turkī look’.⁴

TEXT⁵

..........1 Siddham ⁶||Saṁvatsarē 80 2 Āshāḍha-māsa śuklē(kl-ai)kādaśyām [ﺍ*]
................paramabhaṭṭāraka-mahārājādhi⁷-śrī-Chandra[g]upta-..........pād-ānuddhyātasya ﺍ⁸
___________________

¹ CASIR., Vol. X, pp. 49 ff., and Pls. xvi and xvii.
² The wording here is saṁvatsarē 80 2 which has to be understood as saṁvatsarē dvy-ashṭāśītitamē. The current year is therefore to be understood. If ‘eighty-two’ had been expired, we should have had saṁvatsarēshu instead of saṁvatsarē.
³ The vowel in the fourth syllable of this name is short i here, but it is long in the same word in the Allahābād pillar inscription (No. 1 above), p. 213, line 22.
⁴ B. G., Vol. I, pt. I, p. 64, note 3.
⁵ From inked estampages.
⁶ The virāma is indicated by two vertical strokes below which is placed the m of siddham. The miniature size of this m shows it to be mute.
⁷ Read mahārājādhirāja.
⁸ Each one of these lines ends with a horizontal stroke, looking like the numerical symbol for 1. Fleet, however, takes it to be a virāma, which is a mistake, as the virāma in this record is represented by a vertical stroke as may be seen from those occurring immediately after siddham. The horizontal stroke may have been inserted here to indicate the ending of a line.