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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA This short inscription of four stanzas, rather indifferently engraved, has been published by Dr. M. G. Dikshit.[1] Its text seems to be defective here and there. I had an opportunity of examining Dr. Dikshit’s article on it at the time when it was going through the press. I even made a suggestion two regarding its reading. The observations offered here are the result of a study which I subsequently happened to make of this interesting record. It presents certain difficulties that are still awaiting solution. Dr. Dikshit’s provisional identification of the king Kṛishṇa figuring in it, for instance, with a member of the Ābhīra family of Bhambāgiri needs corroboration. And his explanation of the line read by him as
‘ who in no time made over the earth….to the possession of the king Kṛishṇa ’[2] does not seem to have hit the nail on the head.
In the present note, however, I propose to draw attention to a more obvious point, namely
the object of the inscription. “ The object of the inscription,” says Dr. Dikshit, “ is to
record that the Paṇḍita repaired the Royal Maṭha (Rāja-maṭha), standing on the banks
of river, at Balasāṇaka, for the inhabitance of Brahmins.”[3] The relevant text The use of the term maṭha in the original has given rise to what I may call a misconception as to the exact purport of the record. It has been taken in its ordinary sense of ‘ monastery,’ whereas it has in all probability been employed here in its secondary sense of dēvālaya or ‘ temple.’
In the very opening sentence of his paper, Dr. Dikshit informs us that the inscription ‘ is carved on the lintel of the entrance door of a temple.’[5] And in the absence of any specific reference to the contrary in the inscription, we may be justified in accepting that the maṭha mentioned therein refers to the very temple itself where the inscription is found. Going through the earlier reports on the epigraph, one gets at the root of the confusion. Mr. H. Cousens first drew attention to its existence ‘ upon the maṭha.’[6] Mr. R. D. Banerji, who happened to examine it later on, has asserted that it is found on a temple and not in the maṭha.[7] It appears that both the scholars in reality referred to one and the same building, the former naming it maṭha after the manner of the inscription and the latter calling it temple in accordance with its actual appearance. The mistake, however, seems to lie in the fact that to Mr. Cousens, the term maṭha meant nothing else but ‘ monastery.’ To him the building in question was thus a monastery, because it was labeled, so to sya, as maṭha whatever its form and size. One finds him describe it as such in his Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan.[8] In this publication he gives also a plan of the maṭha,[9] from which one can see that the modest dimensions of the structure answer more to a simple fane than to a monastery. It remains to be shown that maṭha meaning ‘ temple ’, is found not only in lexicons, but also actually used in old inscription. The Dhauli cave inscription of the time of Śāntikara, _________________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 309 ff. and plate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
: has accordingly been translated by him as “ he caused to be
repaired, for the perpetual inhabitance of Brahmins, the dilapidated Royal monastery.”[4]| > |
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