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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS the CASIR., Vol. XI, pp. 19 ff., accompanied by a lithograph (ibid., Plate viii). It was afterwards re-edited by J. F. Fleet in CII., Vol. III, 1888, pp. 42 ff., accompanied by Plate V. Bilsaḍ1 or Bilsaṇḍ is a village,–consisting of three parts, called respectively Bilsaḍ-Puvāyāṁ, or Eastern Bilsaḍ: Bilsaḍ-pachhāyāṁ, or Western Bilsaḍ; and Bilsaḍ-Paṭṭī, or Bilsaḍ Suburb,2–about four miles towards the north-east of Alīgañj,3 the chief town of the Alīgañj Tahsil or Sub-division of the Eta4 District, Uttar Pradesh. At the south-west corner of Bilsaḍ-purāyāṁ, or the eastern division of the town, there are four broken red-sand-stone monolith columns,–two of them, towards the west, round; and two of them, towards the east, square. Each pair of columns stands almost due north and south; and the two western columns are both inscribed The inscription now published is on the eastern side of the northern column of the west pair. On the eastern side of the southern column of the west pair, there is also an inscription, which, as shown by the remains of it, was a duplicate copy of that on the northern column; but it was arranged somewhat differently, being, as counted by General Cunningham, in sixteen somewhat shorter lines, instead of thirteen. From General Cunningham’s ink-impression, hardly any appreciable portion of this second inscription remains, except the second and third lines and lines 12 to 16; and these are not in sufficiently good order to be lithographed, though they are of use in supplying more clearly a few letters which are doubtful in the two verses at the end of the inscription on the northern column. In this second inscription, line 2 begins with svādita-yaśasō of line 1 of the one now published ;–line 3, with the gat-ānēka of line 2; –line 12, with about the parshadā of line 9 ;–line13, with the kaubērachchhanda of line 10;–line 14, with the [sat]tra of line 11;–line 15, with the . . . śubhā of line 12; and line 16, with the of line 13.
With this pair of duplicate inscriptions, we may compare the duplicate inscriptions5 of Yaśōdharman on the two columns at Mandasōr. But Yaśōdharaman’s pillars, remarks J. F. Fleet, were jayastambhas or ‘columns of victory’, not connected with any building; whereas the two inscribed Bilsaḍ pillars seem to have had a direct connection with a temple, now ruined, the remains of which must be hidden under the rubbish that has accumulated over the site,viȥ., the temple of the god Svāmi-Mahāsēna or Kārttikēya, referred to in the inscription.
The writing of the inscription now published covers a space of about 2' 1-¾" broad by
1'10-½" high. The first four lines are almost entirely destroyed, and a good deal of damage
has been done to the rest; but nothing of historical nature seems to have been lost. The
average size of the letters is about 3/8". The characters, on the whole, belong to the western
variety of the Gupta alphabet, the only test latters that belong to the eastern type being m and l, Again, they present a very pointed difference from the characters of the same class in
the preceding inscriptions, in respect of the very marked mātrās or prolonged horizontal top-strokes of the letters. The language is Sanskrit; and the inscription is in prose as far as the end
of line 9, and the rest in verse. In respect of orthography, the only point that calls for notice
is the doubling of t, in conjunction with a following r, e.g., in puttrasya, line 4.
on to every new karman and new rebirths. (D. R. Bhandarkar’s Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture, pp. 53-54
–Sir William Meyer Lectures, 1938-39–University of Madras). This last ‘thirst’ is intended to disappear by means
of the spiritual efficacy of the work of charity of Vīrasēna in digging the well.
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