North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

TRANSLATION

        (Line 1) . . . . whose lotus-like feet, which are the source of knowledge,¹ are adored by bands of Siddhas up to the extremities of the three worlds.

       Thereafter, pre-eminent is the illustrious Chandragupta, the king, who . . . . . . the earth up to the ocean bounds . . . . . .

       (Line 2) . . . . . . The son of the illustrious Chandragupta is Kumāragupta who is well-nigh the great Indragreat Indra² and 2 and who protected the whole earth, holding her with arms, namely, valour, as if she were (his) chast6e lawful wife.

       (Line 3) . . . . . . . . . . . brilliant; in the sky, namely, the earth, arose that moon, namely, Ghaṭōtkachagupta by name with (his) cluster of rays, namely, (his) store of good qualities.

       He of steady fame for the inherent prowess of (his) ancestors, having attained to fame acquired through (his) arms . . . . . .

       (Line 4) . . . . . when a century of years of sovereigns (born of Gupta) (had elapsed),³ accompanied by sixteen years (and) when Kumāragupta was the king shining on earth like the sun in the autumn;

       In Vaṭōdaka, a settlement of merchants (sadhu),⁴

       (Line 5) . . . . of the dignified name of Śrīdēva ; he had an elder brother called Haridēva ; but his younger was Dhanyadēva ; younger than he was Bhadradēva ; still younger than he was Saṅghadeva.

       (Line 6). . . . .(who) of unattached minds, of identical virtuous conduct (but) varying with difference of (human) figure, became the adobes of Kshatriya valour in Tumbavana; (and) who constructed (a shrine of) the god (Pinākin), as lofty as the peak of a hill and bearing the lustre of the moon.

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¹ Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary explains matya as “the means of acquiring knowledge =jñānaya kāraṇam), Kāś. on Pāṇ. IV, 4, 97”.
² This may be compared with the epithets Śrī-Mahēndraḥ, Śrī-Aśvamēdha-Mahēndraḥ, Ajita-Mahēndraḥ, etc., which Kumāragupta bears on his coins (Allan, Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasty, pp. 61-81).
³ Samā-śatē shōḍaśa-varsha-yuktē may be compared to saṁvatsara-śatē ēkanavaty-uttarē with which No. 43 below, e.g., begins. Fleet translates the latter by “in a century of years, increased by ninety-one”. But this is a mistake, for, in that case, we should have expected “in the hundredth year increased by ninety-one” or, in other words, we should have had saṁvatsara-śatatamē, instead of saṁvatsara-śatē. We have, therefore, to take some such words as gatē or atītē, elapsed, understood after samā-śatē of the one and saṁvatsara-śatē of the other. That this is the correct explanation may be seen from the fact that it agrees with Śaka 241 given by Albērūnī as equivalent to the initial year of the Gupta era. We, thus, have Gupta-saṁvat 192(current) plus 241=Śaka-saṁvat 433 (current)=510-11 A.D. Fleet wrongly calculated it as “Gupta-Saṁvat 191+242=Śaka-Saṁvat 433 current; in which year the given date corresponds to Monday, the 3rd January, A.D. 511” (CII., Vol. III,1888, Introd. p. 114).
⁴ It is not impossible to take sādhu-jan-ādhivāsē to mean “the abode of the virtuous people”, in connection with Vaṭōdaka. But this is highly unlikely, because in the next line we are told that Śrīdēva and his brothers embraced the Kshatra profession in Tumbavana. It is, therefore, more reasonable to take sādhu in such a sense that it will denote a profession. This is possible if we taken it to mean “a merchant, money-lender, usurer” which is one of the senses Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary gives for this word. This is no doubt supported by Sanskrit lexicons such as the Vaijayantī of Yādavaprakāśa which makes it synonymous with vardhushi, ‘usurer’ (ed. by Gustav Oppert, p.238, line 192). The Sanskrit term sādhu is no doubt preserved in the vernacular sāhukār which is found not only in Hindī but also in Marāṭhi and Gujarātī and is “applied to a merhcant or trader generally”. It is also preserved in the Bengālī word sāhā, which is sometimes spelt shaw. The word sādhu is met with frequently also in inscriptions. Thus, one Khajurāhō inscription records the putting up of a Jaina image by one Sādhu Sālhē son of Pāhilla, who was a son of Śrēshṭhin Dēdū, of the Grahapati family, (Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 153). What is worthy of note here is that the term sādhu has been distinguished from śrēshṭhin. The word also occurs in South Indian inscriptions. From these, it is evident that in that part of India the sādhus played an important part in a public transaction whether issuing from the king or the people (Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, pp. 181, 239, note, and 315, line 28; Vol. XIII, p. 255, No. 135 where a Brāhmaṇa named Tēlaṅgārya and belonging to Harita gōtra is mentioned as a sādhu).