South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

divided into two parts by a vertical line, the space occupied by the portions at the left and right being respectively 37″X7″ and 17″X6″. There are five lines of inscription in both the parts, the first line of the smaller portion at the right being a continuation of the last line of the bigger part at the left. Individual aksharas are between ¾″ and 1″ in height. Of the two parts of the inscription, the preservation of the bigger one, which is more important, is fortunately not quite unsatisfactory ; but a piece of stone has broken away from the middle of the second part together with a number of letters from all the five lines of writing. The first line of this part, with the exception of three aksharas at the beginning, is broken away, while the gap caused by the break in the other lines of writing is between 4″ and 8″ in length. This has rendered the decipherment and interpretation of the latter part of the record extremely difficult.

The inscription is written in early Oriya characters which may be compared with those employed in the Balasore copper axe-head inscription of a later date, referred to above. Of initial vowels, the inscription under review employs a, ā, i, u, e and o. Of these, i is of the Gauḍīya type, while a (pronounced in Oriya and some other East Indian dialects as o in English not and often confused with o) and ā are of the modern Oriya type. The medial ā-stroke is short and joined to the top curve of the consonants. The medial signs of i and ī are sometimes not easily distinguishable. K is without its vertical stroke as in the modern Karṇī variety of the Oriya alphabet.1 The same is the case sometimes with v which is invariably pronounced as b in Oriya and other East Indian dialects. Ṭ and t are of the Bengali type, which n closely resembles the Telugu form of the letter. In some cases, there is little difference between g and p and, in a few cases, m also has a similar shape. R has more than one form. Sometimes it resembles ch ; but often its tail, which developed out of the protuberance of the lower slanting line of Gauḍīya r, is joined with its top curve (put at the right side in a few cases ; cf. vāre in line 1) as in modern Oriya. The form of the akshara ru is interesting. H resembles the same letter as found in other Orissan epigraphs including the Bhubaneswar inscription (in early Bengali characters) referred to above. The akshara hi in srāhi (line 1) has, however, a cursive form noticed in some records including the said Bhubaneswar inscription. In modern Oriya, dental l is distinguished from retroflex l (derived from the sign of l in Gauḍī) by a diacritical mark. It is possible that this distinguishing diacritical mark has been used in our inscription in a few cases (cf. l in mudula in line 3) ; but the unsatisfactory state of the preservation of the epigraph renders it difficult to be definite on this point. The numerals 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9 have been used in the inscription. The figure for 1 shows its Telugu form, while 2, 5, etc., are of the Bengali type. A peculiar Oriya method has been followed in pa 50 sa in line 4 to indicate pañchāśa 50.

The language of the inscription is Oriya. An interesting orthographical feature is the almost universal use of the dental sibilant in accordance with the peculiarity of Oriya pronunciation. Noteworthy are also the expressions narasīṅgha for Sanskrit narasiṁha, vīje-rāje for vijaya-rājye, samaṁthu for saṁvat (saṁvatsare), kīshṇa for kṛishṇa, chatarudīga for chaturdik, śrikraṇa-paṭānāeka for śrīkaraṇa-paṭṭanāyaka, māhāsenāptī for mahāsenāpati, sanīmīgra for sandhivigraha (sāndhivigrahika), koṭha-kraṇa for koshṭha-karaṇa, vehorana for vyavaharaṇa, vīse for vishaye, parīdarasanā for paridarśana, jāvata for yāvat, āsa for āyus, sīdhesara for siddheśvara, etc. Similar expressions are also noticed in numerous other early Oriya inscriptions.

The date of the record is given in line 1 as samaṁthu 19 srāhi Kakaḍā-kīshṇa 14 Chandra-vāre, i.e., Monday, the 14th of the dark fortnight of Karkaṭa (solar Bhādrapada) in the Aṅka year 19 of king Narasiṁha. The mention of Śrīkaraṇa-paṭṭanāyaka Viśvanātha-mahāsenāpati as an officer of the king, as will be seen below, shows that he is none other than the imperial Gaṅga monarch Narasiṁha IV who began to rule about 1378 A.C. The expression srāhi, used in the date, is believed to be a corruption of Sanskrit śaradi=Prakrit sarahi meaning “ in the year ”

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^[1] See JBORS, Vol. X, Plate XIII following p. 170.