South Indian Inscriptions

Contents
Index
Introduction
Contents
List of Plates
Additions and Corrections
Images
Contents
Altekar, A. S
Bhattasali, N. K
Barua, B. M And Chakravarti, Pulin Behari
Chakravarti, S. N
Chhabra, B. CH
Das Gupta
Desai, P. B
Gai, G. S
Garde, M. B
Ghoshal, R. K
Gupte, Y. R
Kedar Nath Sastri
Khare, G. H
Krishnamacharlu, C. R
Konow, Sten
Lakshminarayan Rao, N
Majumdar, R. C
Master, Alfred
Mirashi, V. V
Mirashi, V. V., And Gupte, Y. R
Narasimhaswami, H. K
Nilakanta Sastri And Venkataramayya, M
Panchamukhi, R. S
Pandeya, L. P
Raghavan, V
Ramadas, G
Sircar, Dines Chandra
Somasekhara Sarma
Subrahmanya Aiyar
Vats, Madho Sarup
Venkataramayya, M
Venkatasubba Ayyar
Vaidyanathan, K. S
Vogel, J. Ph
Index.- By M. Venkataramayya
Other South-Indian Inscriptions
Volume 1	Volume 2
Volume 3	Vol. 4 - 8
Volume 9	Volume 10
Volume 11	Volume 12
Volume 13	Volume 14
Volume 15	Volume 16
Volume 17	Volume 18
Volume 19	Volume 20
Volume 22 Part 1	Volume 22 Part 2
Volume 23	Volume 24
Volume 26	Volume 27
Tiruvarur	Darasuram
Konerirajapuram	Tanjavur
Annual Reports 1935-1944	Annual Reports 1945- 1947
Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Volume 2, Part 2	Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Volume 7, Part 3
Kalachuri-Chedi Era Part 1	Kalachuri-Chedi Era Part 2
Epigraphica Indica	Epigraphia Indica Volume 3
Epigraphia Indica Volume 4	Epigraphia Indica Volume 6
Epigraphia Indica Volume 7	Epigraphia Indica Volume 8
Epigraphia Indica Volume 27	Epigraphia Indica Volume 29
Epigraphia Indica Volume 30	Epigraphia Indica Volume 31
Epigraphia Indica Volume 32	Paramaras Volume 7, Part 2
Śilāhāras Volume 6, Part 2	Vākāṭakas Volume 5
Early Gupta Inscriptions
Archaeological Links
Archaeological-Survey of India
Pudukkottai

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

No. 11.-GUNJI ROCK INSCRIPTION OF KUMARAVARADATTA

(1 Plate)

V. V. MIRASHI, AMRAOTI

CHEVURU PLATES OF EASTERN CHALUKYA AMMA I

Gunji is a small village, 14 miles north by west of Sakti, the chief town of a feudatory state of the same name in the Chhattisgrath Division of the Central Provinces. Sakti lies on the Calcutta-Nagpur line of the Bengal Nagpur Railway. At the foot of a hill near the village there is a kuṇḍa (or a pool of water) called Damau Dahrā, which obtains its supply of water from the neighbouring hills and is believed to be unfathomable. On one side of this pool there is a rock on which the record edited here is engraved.^[1] Gunji is about 40 miles north-west of Kirāri where a wooden pillar with a record in Brāhmī characters of the second century A.D. was discovered in 1921 which was subsequently edited in this journal.^[2] About 75 miles almost due north of Gunji lies the Rāmgarh hill which contains the well-known Sītāvengā and Jogimārā caves with interesting inscriptions of the second century B. C.^[3] Gunji was thus situated in a part of the country which was flourishing in the centuries before and after the beginning of the Christian era.

The present inscription was first brought to notice nearly forty-five years ago in the Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of Western India for 1903-4, p. 54. Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar, who deciphered the record then, referred it to the first century A. D. He called attention to the two regnal dates in it, viz., the fifteenth day of the fourth fortnight of Hēmanta in the fifth year and the second day of the sixth fortnight of Grīshma in the eighth year, and read the name of the king as Kumāra Vasanta.^[4] He also noticed the words Bhagavato Usubhatithe, the name of a thera Goḍachha and the name Vāsiṭhiputa. This account was followed by Rai Bahadur Hiralal in his Inscriptions in C. P. and Berar.^[5] He suggested, however, that Vāsiṭhiputa mentioned in it might be identical with the homonymous person mentioned in the Ajaṇṭā cave inscription No. 1, and that the record might, in that case, belong to the second century B. C.^[6] A facsimile of the inscription,^[7] somewhat worked up by hand, was published in the Gazetteer of Chhattisgarh Feudatory States in 1909 without any further account of the record. The inscription has thus remained unedited for more than forty years after it became known. In view of its importance for the ancient history of Chhattisgarh, I requested Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra^[8] to copy it for me. He very kindly complied with my request and supplied me with an excellent estampage from which I edit the record here.

^[1]Gazetteer of Chhattisgarh Feudatory States, p. 193.
^[2] Above, Vol. XVIII, pp. 152 ff.
^[3]Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIV, pp. 197 ff.
^[4] The second date was misread. As shown below, the correct reading is the tenth day of the sixth fortnight of Grīshma in the sixth regnal year. The symbol denoting the year, which is exactly like the one denoting the fortnight further on in the same line, leaves no doubt that the year was 6. As for the day, Dr. Bhandarkar was possibly misled by the word bitiyaṁ which qualifies go-sahasaṁ. He read the king’s name as Kumāra Vasanta. As he is called Rājan, it looks strange that he should still be a Kumāra. The correct reading is Kumāravaradata and Kumāravara means Kārttikēya. Cf. namoKumāravarasa in line 1 of the Nānāghāṭ cave inscription of Nāganikā. Arch. Surv. West. Ind., Vol. V, pp. 60 f. For the honorific suffix siri added to the royal name, compare Chandasiri (śrī-Chandra) in the Mudrārākshasa, Act I.

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^[5] First edition (1916), p. 168 ; second ed. (1932), p. 180.
^[6]As shown below, Vāsiṭhiputa, mentioned in the present inscription, was a metronymic of Bōdhadatta who made the two gifts recorded here. He was not identical with Vāsiṭhiputa mentioned in the Ajaṇṭā inscription, because the personal name of the latter was Kaṭahadi. See Arch. Surv. West. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 116.
^[7]This was probably one of the two photographs which Mr. H. Cousins, Superintendent of Archaeology, is said to have contributed to the Gazetteer. See the Prefatory Note in the Gazetteer.
^[8] [But for the help kindly rendered by Pandit L. P. Pandeya of the Mahakosala Historical Society it would not have been possible for me to copy the epigraph. He even accompanied me to thespot.─ B.C.C.]

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