North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

of all virtues by the Mahārājādhirāja, the prosperous Chandragupta (II) whose favourite name is Dēvarāja;1 (Lines 9-10) with the other half, which is mine,2 let the same number of mendicants be fed, and let (a lamp) burn in the jewel-house. (Lines 10-11) Whosoever breaks up that same arrangement, shall become infected with the killing of a cow or of a Brāhmaṇa3 and with the sins that cause immediate retribution.4 (Line 11) (In) the year 90 3, (on) the day 4 of Bhādrapada.

No. 10: PLATE X

MATHURA STONE INSCRIPTION OF CHANDRAGUPTA II

        This inscription was discovered in 1853 by General Cunningham, and was first brought to notice by him in his first Archaeological Report, which, originally printed in 1863 as a supplement to the JBAS., Vol. XXXII, pp. iii to cxix, was in 1871 reprinted, with the addition of Plates, as CASIR., Vol. III, p. 37, and Plate xvi, No. 24, wherein he published a reduced lithograph of it, showing the completion of the lines as arranged by him. It was thereafter edited critically by J. F. Fleet, in CII., Vol. III, 1888, pp. 25 ff. accompanied by Plate III A.

        The inscription is on a red-sandstone fragment, about 10” broad by 11-½” high, cracked across the lower proper right corner, which was found, with its face downwards, forming part of the pavement immediately outside the Katrā gateway at Mathurā, the chief town of the Mathurā District in Uttar Pradesh. The original stone was for a long time in the Provincial Museum at Lahore, but has now been transferred to the Curzon Museum, Mathura.

        The writing, which covers the entire front of the stone, about 10” broad by 11-½” high, is in a state of very fair preservation. It is only a fragment, the first line has been almost entirely destroyed, and an indefinite number of lines have been almost entirely broken away and lost at the bottom of the stone; and, in addition to this, from one to nine aksharas have been broken away and lost at the commencement of the lines, except in lines 8 and 9. The size of the letters varies from ⅜” to ¾”. The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets. They are of radically the same stock with those of the Mathurā pillar inscription of Chandragupta II, No. 6 above, but with some minor differences in details. The only character of the eastern Gupta
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the phrase Mahā-ratna-pratimaṇḍita (SBE., Vol. XXI, p. 66). Ratnagṛiha is met with once again in a Mathurā Buddhist inscription, where we have ratnagṛiha-sarva-budha-pujāya, ‘Jewel-house for the worship of all Buddhas’ (Ind. Ant., Vol. XXI, p. 246., note; Lüders’ List, No. 125), showing that here we had a shrine comprising images of all Buddhas. We have a similar expression in ratnatraya-bhadra-dhāma in a Kārkaḷa Jaina inscription (Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 131, line 7), meaning “the blessed abode of the three Jewels” who in this particular case are Ara, Malli and Muni-Suvrata mentioned in line 20 (ibid., p. 132).
¹ Prinsep rendered this passage so as to make Dēvarāja to be another name of Chandragupta II. But says Fleet: “This may be correct. But we have no other authority for giving him this second name.” He, therefore, filled up the lacunae in such a way as to give the translation: “for the perfection of all the virtues of him who, having the familiar name of Dēvarāja, is a minister of the Mahārājādhirāja, the glorious Chandragupta.” Prinsep’s surmise, however, turns out to be correct. For, since Fleet wrote, two grants of the Vākāṭaka queen Prabhāvati-Guptā have been found (CII., Vol. V, pp. 5 ff. and pp. 33 ff). which show that her father who is elsewhere called Dēva- gupta is here called Chandragupta (II), son of Samudragupta. This was pointed out by us long ago in Ind. Ant., Vol. XLII, pp. 160-61.
² Obviously Āmrakārdava is here speaking of himself.
³ It is worthy of note that the slaughter of a cow is here considered to be as heinous as that of a Brāhmaṇa.
⁴ Pañcha ānantarya is the same as the Pāli Pañchānantariya-kammam which is thus explained by Childers: “Five sins that bring with them immediate retribution. . . They are the six Abhiṭhānas minus the last or last but one.” And Abhiṭhāna is further explained as follows: “Crime, deadly sin . . . They are six: ‘Matricide, patricide, killing an Arhat, shedding the blood of a Buddha, causing divisions among the priesthood, following other teachers.’