South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

TRANSLATION

The (image of) the maker of the day, the God of the persons afflicted with the (skin disease) lakman. The year 12 is of the exalted Gōvindachandradēva. The 19th day of Phālguna.1

B. Betkā Vāsudēva image inscription of the 23rd year of Govindachandra

In the village of Pāikpāra and in the adjacent village of Betkā, P. S. Taṅgīvāḍī, Dt. Dacca, there live from time immemorial, flourishing families of the betel-leaf cultivators, the class being generally known as the Bārai or the Bārujīvī. They form a distinct class throughout Bengal and the lucrative profession of cultivating and selling betel leaves has made the class well-to-do, industrious, united, self-respecting, religious and peaceful. They are mostly worshippers of Vishṇu.

A beautiful image of Vishṇu or Vāsudēva in black stone came out about three years ago, when re-excavating an old tank on the northern extremity of the village of Betkā, just on the border of Pāikpāra. On all sides of the tank are the habitations of the Bārais. The finders presented the image to an establishment in the village of Āuṭśāhī, three miles south, called Pallī-Kalyāṇa-Āśrama, manufacturing khādi and hand-made paper, and affiliated to the All-India Spinners’ Association. The image has been established there as the presiding deity of the Āśrama, but it is not worshipped.

The image is about 4′ in height and must be pronounced to be a very pleasing piece of sculpture and a fine specimen of the art of the Bengal sculptor. It is just an ordinary image of Vishṇu which conical tiara adorned by the kīrttimukha, and it has little to distinguish it from countless such images found throughout Bengal and dating from A. D. 1000 to 1200. Only the miniature figures of Śaṅkhapurusha and Chakrapurusha at either end of the pedestal are indications that the image is a fairly early piece of sculpture. The fact that the style represented by these conical-crowned profusely decorated soft-featured sculptures in black stone of the Rājmahal Hills began even earlier than the period of Gōvindachandra is amply demonstrated by these two inscribed images of the reign of Gōvindachandra, king of Vaṅga.

The inscription is in four lines, each line being made up of three sections, with the exception of the fourth line, which is finished in a single section. The letters are half-an-inch high and look like the hand-writing of a man who could boast of nothing more than literacy. The Kulkuḍi inscription shows a better hand. The two inscriptions hailing from the same kingdom and belonging to the reign of the same king and only eleven years apart in point of time offer, however, very marked contrast in the shape of the letters. How unsafe a guide paleography may become, if one has to depend on casual inscriptions like the present ones, is fully demonstrated by these two inscriptions. Particular attention may be drawn to the shape of t in the two inscriptions, which would appear to be wide apart in point of age.

The language of the inscription is incorrect Sanskrit. As already remarked in the case of the Kulkuḍi inscription, it is idle to expect correct grammar in these masons’ and half-literate donors’ labels.

The purport of the inscription is to record the installation of an image of the Lord Vāsudēva by one Gaṅgadāsa, son of the deceased Pāradāsa, Bālajika (i.e., Bārajika) by caste, in the 23rd year of Gōvindachandra. The mention of the caste of the donor as Bālajika shows that the present-day nomenclature of the class as Bārai is derived from the word Bārajika ; and the word Barujīvī, by which name the more educated among the class like to call themselves, is a modern

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^[1] [The alternative translation of the first line would be : “(This is the image of) the sun-god, caused to be made by the illustrious Lakshmīdīna.─Ed.]