North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

MANDASŌR INSCRIPTION OF NARAVARMAN: KṚITA YEAR 461

was living at Vaiśālī with her son, who was then Yuvarāja and the ruler of the Tira-bhukti.¹ Further, we have to note that Gōvindagupta was not the only son of Chandragupta (II) and Dhruvasvāminī. They had a second son named Kumāragupta (I), several inscriptions of whom have been found. Whether Gōvindagupta succeeded his father and, if so, how long he reigned are questions which naturally arise here. But these have been discussed elsewhere, in the Introduction, pp. 72 ff. above.

TEXT

1 Mahārā[ jā* ]dh[i*]r[āja-śrī*]-[Chandra][gupta*]-
2 [pa*]tnī-mah[ā*]r[āja*]-śrī-G[ō*]v[i*]nda-[gupta*]-
3 mātā mahādēvī-śrī-[Dhru]-
4 vasvāminī [|*]

TRANSLATION

        The prosperous Dhruvasvāminī, the Great Queen (Mahādēvī), wife of the prosperous Chandragupta, the Mahārājādhirāja, (and) mother of the prosperous Gōvindagupta, the Mahārāja.

No. 14: PLATE XIV

MANDASŌR INSCRIPTION OF NARAVARMAN: THE
KṘITA YEAR 461

        This inscription is in two fragments. The larger was found early in 1912 in the property of Lala Jayashankar, a pleader of Mandasōr, while some of his men were cultivating one of his fields near the Fort gate and not far from the village of Ṭoḍī. It was immediately taken possession of and put for safe custody in the house of the Subah of Mandasōr. In October 1912 the late Mahāmahōpādhyāya Haraprasad Sastri saw the stone and with the permission of the Subah had it removed to the house of the Lala where he was staying and where he deciphered the inscription. The stone was lying in the Lala’s house when in February 1913 I visited Mandasōr and inspected the record. A careful examination of the fragment left no doubt in my mind that the original stone was purposely and neatly cut out after line 9 for being used in some building. In 1922-23 M. B. Garde, then Superintendent of Archaeology, picked up the other fragment in Mandasōr, but he does not say from where exactly. The first account of the larger fragment setting forth its historical and chronological importance was published by me in the Progress Report of Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle, for 1912-13, p. 58 and in the Ind. Ant., Vol.XLII, pp. 161 ff. I intended editing the record along with the text and translation in the Ep. Ind., but as the late Haraprasad Sastri was himself anxious to publish it there, I forwarded to him the ink-impressions which I had taken with my own hand. And this he did in Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, pp. 315 ff. and Plate. As regards the second smaller fragment of the inscription, Garde published a small notice of the same in the A.R. ASI., 1922-23, p. 187. Neither of these fragments seems to have been handled, even in part, by any others scholar except R. G. Bhandarkar, who, in 1913, gave out his own interpretation of verse 2 in the Ind. Ant., Vol. XLII, pp. 199-200.

        Mandasōr or Mandasaur, more properly, Dasōr, is the chief town of the Mandasōr District of the former Gwalior State, now in Madhya Pradesh. It is situated on the bank of the Siwana river, a tributary of the Śiprā, and on the Ajmer-Khandwa branch of the Western
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¹ Ind. Ant., Vol. XLI, p. 3.