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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 26-SRINAGAR INSCRIPTION OF QUEEN DIDDA (1 Plate) KEDAR NATA SASTRI, SARNATH This inscription is engraved on a stone slab (10″X8½″) which was discovered in a private house in Srinagar, Kashmir, and was later presented by Dr. G. W. Leitner to the Central Museum, Lahore, where it is now preserved. It has already been noticed by Dr. J. Ph. Vogel,[1] and briefly described by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni.[2] The script is Śāradā and the language Sanskrit. It is dated in the year 68, obviously of the Laukika era (corresponding to A.D. 992), in the bright fortnight of the month of Śuchi (Jyēshṭḥa or Āshāḍha) in the reign of queen Diddā of Kashmir. The year falls within her reign as recorded in the Rājataraṅgiṇī and testifies to the correctness of Kalhaṇa’s chronology. The top and bottom portions of the slab are broken and a good deal of the inscription has been lost, both at the beginning and at the end, including the benedictory stanzas, the genealogy of the donor, as well as the dedicatory portion recording the purpose of the epigraph. Due to a lateral fracture in the slab along its left edge, the opening letters of seven lower lines have progressively suffered damage.
The record consists of ten lines comprising three verses, two of which are almost complete while the third is only partly preserved. The average size of the letters is about ½″X⅜″. As regards orthography, it may be observed that the letters m and s are very much alike except that the vertical vowel stroke in the latter is slightly elongated downwards. Similarly, the difference between v and dh is not very marked except that the bulge in the latter is more pronounced and a little longer. The confounding letters can be made out more with the help of the context than from their forms. In line 3 upadhmānīya has been used for visarga and is superposed on the following letter pu. Generally, the composition is free from ungrammatical forms and mistakes in prosody, save for one or two minor flaws. The first verse mentions that a certain lady, whose name is not traceable in the text, gave birth to a son, named Dharmāṅka lovely as Madana (lit. bearing the stamp of Madana),[3] and a great benefactor of cows. The second describes Dharmāṅka as a devoted son who gladdened his mother as Kārttikēya, Gaṇapati, Āditya and Kṛishṇa gladdened theirs, by charitable diggings (of wells, tanks, etc.), which made the Lord of gods and the people rejoice. The third verse, though incomplete, is more important as it record the date. It informs that in the bright fortnight of the month of Śuchi, in the year 68 of the Laukika era, corresponding to A.D. 992, in the reign of queen Diddā, he (Dharmāṅka) honoured his mother with utmost devotion (by dedicating some charitable work to perpetuate her memory). It seems rather queer, that in this inscription, as in another of her reign now preserved in the Sri Pratap Museum, Srinagar,[4] Diddā should have been eulogised by the masculine epithet of rājan[5] (king) instead of rājñī (queen) which was her due. It may be observed in this connection that she was an energetic and powerful queen who ruled over the destinies of Kashmir for nearly half a century. She was the daughter of Siṁharāja of Lohara, and a grand-daughter from maternal _____________________
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