South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Inscription C

A Fragmentary Inscription of Mahasenapati Bha??isoma

Not far from the yūpa which bears the above inscriptions, there are two other pillars at Nāndsā, situated only within a distance of about a quarter of a furlong from it, in the same lake. According to the information supplied by Mr. A. K. Vyas, M.A., Superintendent, Victoria Hall Museum, Udaipur, one of these pillars, which is uninscribed, is undamaged ; but the other which was inscribed, was broken into several fragments by a stroke of lightning some years ago. One of these broken pieces has been preserved in the kōṭāḍī (store room) of the village and the inscription, which is being edited here for the first time, is inscribed upon it. It is unfortunate that other inscribed fragments of the pillar should not have been found. I am editing here the fragmentary record that is available, because even in its present condition it is historically important.

The inscription consists of seven lines of very uneven length. It does not seem very probable that there were any letters to the left of the present first five lines. It would then follow that they were shorter in length than the subsequent lines. How far each line extended to the right cannot be ascertained or inferred. Nor do we know whether the inscription began with yasya, whichis the opening word of its present first line. It did extend further than the seventh line, for we can clearly see the medial mātrā signs of the letters of the eighth line.

The engraving of the record is careful, and its letters show the same palæographical peculiarities as those in inscriptions A and B above. It would therefore appear to be not far removed in time from them. Its extant portions contain no date, but we may place it in the 3rd century A. D.

The language is Sanskrit, but there is occasional influence of Prakrit, as in the forms sēnāpatisya and Sōgisha in l. 8. The record was probably in prose ; the word yasya in the first line and gralōkāḥ in the second could, however, well have been the beginning and concluding words of a line of verse.

The first two lines were probably a eulogy of Mahāsēnāpati Bhaṭṭisōma, as they state that ‘ all the worlds were filled by his fame ’. The 3rd line reads : sva-dēśē Kōṭītī[rthē], which would show that the fief of Bhaṭṭisōma was in the vicinity of Kōṭītīrtha. The passage probably refers to some of his benefactions at that holy place. There are several Kōṭītīrthas in India in places like Banaras, Mathurā, Kurukshētra and Ujjayinī, each of which boasts of one. Which one is intended here is difficult to say. The fourth line [pā]rśvē Śalmali-vṛikshaḥ refers to a śalmali tree in the vicinity of something. Why this tree is mentioned here we do not know. It was not one of the trees out of which a yūpa could be made. The fifth line is tāpas-āśrama-va[na] ; it probably refers to a forest given as an āśrama to ascetics. The sixth line probably refers to something done by Bhaṭṭisōma for the increase of his family and gōtra, and refers to his sons and grandsons. The last line describes Bhaṭṭisōma as a Mahāsēnāpati. In contemporary Maukhari, Sātavāhana and Ikshvāku records, ^[1] this title seems to denote a feudal chief of considerable importance, ruling over a fairly big district, The same probably was the case with Bhaṭṭisōma.

Bhaṭṭisōma is further described here as a Sōgi. We have seen above that the records of the Mālava chief [Śrī ?]sōma on the yūpa in the tank describe him as a leader of the Sōgis. We have already discussed the significance of this term. It would appear that the Sōgis were a subclan of the Mālavas and that some of their generals had acquired the leadership of the whole state.

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^[1] Above, Vol. XXIII, p. 47 ; Vol. VIII, p. 94 ; and Vol. XIX, p. 1.