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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA NANDSA YUPA INSCRIPTIONS form in avatārayitvā for avatārya in A, ll. 1-2 and B, l. 3. If the record has been correctly copied, we have to admit that there is a glaring syntactical irregularity in it. The series of the absolute clauses with which the record commences is left without any subject, nor are they followed by a principal clause, as is usually required. The author of the record adopts the ornate style of Sanskrit prose. There are several similes and metaphors; anuprāsa is not forgotten (B, l. 9), compounds are frequent and some of them are very long (A, l. 4). The record is a praśasti, and it must be acknowledged that the language used is appropriate for the occasion. It gives a vivid idea of the fame and exploits of the hero it commemorates. Both the records are dated. The date, which is given in numerals as well as in words in inscription A and in numerals only in inscription B, is the full moon day of the month of Chaitra of the Kṛita (i.e. Vikrama) year 282. The corresponding year according to the Christian era would be A.D. 226. The inscriptions are thus the earliest records of the Vikrama era so far known. They are two years earlier than the Barnālā yūpa inscription A, [1] and 11 years anterior to the three yūpa inscriptions of the Maukharis [2] discovered by the present writer at Baḍvā. The inscriptions are primarily intended to commemorate the performance of the Ēkashashṭirātra sacrificial session, which, as its name indicates, used to extend over 61 days. The following constituent sacrifices were offered in this session in the order given below :─
1st day Prāyaṇīya sacrifice The Brāhmaṇas and Śrauta Sūtras give several details of each of the above sacrifices, [4] but it is unnecessary to discuss them here. The purpose and significance of the session itself will be discussed later on. We have so far noticed several yūpa inscriptions, but they usually refer to short sacrifices, The longest sacrificial session, so far discovered from epigraphs, was the Dvādaśarātra-sattra, performed at Īsāpur near Mathurūra in the 28th year of the reign of the emperor Huvishka by Brāhmaṇa Drōṇala.[5] A long sacrificial session, lasting for as many as 61 days, is referred to for the first time in the present records. A sacrificial sattra can be performed only by Brāhmaṇas[6], but the potentate who is eulogised in our records was a Kshatriya. So it is stated that he did not himself perform it, but caused it to be performed ; cf. avatārayitv=ai(avatāry=ai)kashashṭirātram=atisatraṁ, B, ll. 3-4. Not _______________________________________________
[1] Above. Vol. XXVI, pp. 118 ff. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|| Pūrvamīmāṁsā, VI, 6, 18.