North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

took refuge with the grantor of refuge, namely (that Tree) which yields the noble fruit of heaven, whose charming young shoots are the heavenly damsels, whose many branches are the celestial cars, (and) which trickles out honey (in the shape of) rain water; namely, Vāsudēva whose abode is the world, who is inscrutable, unborn (and) all-prevading;

        (Verse 12 to 14) Satya who does honours to friends, servants and the distressed; who, again, is the moon of his family; whose wealth and life have been consigned to the gods and the Brāhmaṇas; who is intensely compassionate; who has acquired (his) profuse wealth by lawful means; who is the vitruous son of Varṇṇavṛiddhi but indeed the virtuous son’s son of Jaya, (and) the virtuous son through Jayamitrā, daughter of Balaśūra. . . .

Second Fragment

       (Line 1) Pertaining to the Gārggāyaṇa gōtra, and by caste . . . .
       (Line 2) In the extensive and well-known town named (Daśa which is) two times, five, . . . .
       (Line 3) Abounding in varied clumps of trees and creepers.
       (Line 4) May he become blessed and lucky, (being surrounded by sons and son’s sons), . .
       (Line 5) Permeated by Kṛishṇa . . . .

No. 15 : PLATE XV

BIHĀR KŌTRĀ INSCRIPTION OF NARAVARMAN : THE (KṚITA) YEAR 474

       This inscription was originally found at Bihār Kōtrā in the former Rājgaḍh State, Central India, now Madhya Pradesh, and was secured by a tourist and collector from whom it was acquired by purchase by the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, where it is now deposited.¹

       The inscription contains six lines of writing, covering a space about 1' ¾" broad by 6-½" high. The characters, generally speaking, belong to the Mālwā variety of the Western class of Gupta alphabet, as in No. 14, with individual differences as in the case of r,v,s and so forth. M has a calligraphic from and two forms of tripartite y are also noticeable, one with and the other without the left loop. The other palaeographic peculiarities are (1) the occurrence of the initial ō in Ōlikarasya in line 1 and (2) the end m in-dvitīyām, line 3. The language is Sanskrit, and the whole of the inscription is in prose. There is one solecism, namely, the use of śrīr-, once, instead of śrī-, in –śrīr-mahārāja-, line 1. This solecism occurs also in No. 14.² In respect of orthography we have to notice (1) the doubling of consonants with a preceding r,e.g., in-Naravarmmaṇaḥ line 1, and sarvva-, line 5; and (2) the doubling of t in conjunction with a following r in -satputtrēṇa, line 4.

       This is another inscription of the time of Naravarman; and as it is a prose inscription, we find title Mahārāja coupled with his name, indicative of his feudatory rank. What is, however, of greater importance in this connection is that he has been called Ōlikara which reminds us of Aulikara used with reference to Vishṇuvardhana in a Mandasōr inscription,³ dated Kṛita 589. It seems that Ōlikara or Aulikara was a surname of the feudatory family ruling over Western Mālwā with its capital at Daśapura as has been explained in our account of No. 14 above. Another important item of information supplied by this record is the date 474 which has to be taken as a Kṛita year and which, so far as we are able to fill up the lacuna, was
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¹ This inscription has been published in Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVI, pp. 130 ff.
² [See p. 262, note 1 above.–Ed.].
³ CII ., Vol. III, 1888, No.35.