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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA KONI INSCRIPTION OF KALACHURI PRITHVIDEVA II ; K. E. 900 brickbats. The protruding bricks had attracted the attention of some villagers who started digging there and laid bare the liṅga, theinscribed slab and a number of sculptures. Among the latter I saw two images, one of Vishṇu and the other of Sūrya, and a couple of lintels each with a figurine of Gaṇēśa in the centre and some carvings on either side.” The inscriptions is incised on a stone measuring 3′ 5″ broad and 1′ 10″ high. It consists of 28 lines, each of which in 3′ 3·2″ long except the last one which measures only 1·2″ long. The record is in a good state of preservation except in the last three lines where a few aksharas here and there are now damaged. Most of these aksharas can, however, be restored conjecturally from the context as well as from the traces left behind.
The characters are Nāgarī. The record is well written and engraved, but in both writing
and engraving a few mistakes have remained unnoticed. [1] The average size of letters is .4″. As
shown below, the present inscription was incised only twenty years after the Sarkhō plates were
issued by Ratnadēva II in K. 880, but its characters in some cases show considerable development
over those of the latter-record. [2] As regards individual letters, attention may be drawn to the form
of the initial i consisting of two curves, one below the other, which are still unconnected ; the
upper one is as in the Sarkhō plates, but the lower one is shaped differently, see iha, l. 12 and idam=,
l. 24 ; initial ē has a form similar to that of p with this difference that its vertical stroke on the
right is not lengthened below the base, see ētat=, l. 23 ; medial u is, in some cases, indicated by
a curve attached to the middle of the vertical and turned downwards, see sahasradyutir-, l. 26 ;
medial ē and ō are generally indicated by pṛishṭhamātrās,
The language is Sanskrit. Except Ōṁ namaḥ Śivāya in the beginning and the mention of the date and the ruling king at the end, the record is metrically composed throughout. There are, in all, 38 verses, all of which are numbered. The record is composed in a verbose style full of hyperbolical expressions, well-known from the records of later periods. The poet shows considerable command over the language, though here and there one comes across a grammatical solecism or a metrical irregularity. See, e.g., adhirōpyata in l. 21 for adhyarōpyata. Lakhamā in l. 15 should be Lakhmā to suit the Mālinī metre of the verse. As regards orthography, the consonant following r is reduplicated in many cases, see, e.g., karṇṇa-, l. 2 ; the dental s is occasionally used for the palatal ś as in sikhara-, l. 2 ; y is used for j in paurusha-yushāṁ, l. 15 ; n is used for ñ in pañchāyatanam, and for anusvāra in vidhvansa- both in l. 23. As stated before, v is used for b throughout. Finally, in niḥkaṇṭaka, ll. 18 and 19, the visarga takes the place of sh. The inscription refers itself to the reign of Pṛithvīdēva II who belonged to the Ratanpur branch of the Kalachuri dynasty. The object of it is to record the construction of a five-shrined _______________________________________________
[1] Some mistakes were corrected subsequently, see, e.g., the anusvāra on the second nā in durjjanānām, l. 6, has
been cancelled and the word daṁḍa which was at first omitted was incised subsequently in ll. 19-20.
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