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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA “ I am much obliged to you for your reference to the notice on the Gilgit Mss. excavated in 1938 as contained in Quarterly Journal of Mythic Society. I confess to be unaware of this periodical and of the account of the excavations therein recorded. The couple of small stūpas close to the one opened in 1930 were seen by me in 1931. I am glad that they were preserved from ‘ irresponsible ’ digging, but should have been glad to receive information about their subsequent excavation by the Archaeological Department of Kashmir ” Later I sent some impression material to the Political Agent at Gilgit ; but the attempt to take proper estampages was not very successful. He therefore sent me an estampage (rather a tracing) on cloth prepared by Khan Sahib Afrazgul Khan, with the help of which and also the unsatisfactory photographs previously received, the text now published has been prepared. The inscription is engraved on a rock[1] which is situated not near Silpi as previously reported by the Political Agent, but, as Sir Aurel informed me later in 1942 on the authority of Afrazgul Khan, five miles above it, about one mile south of the hamlet of Hātūn on the right bank of the Ishkuman river. It has seven lines of writing in a script which may be called proto-Śāradā. In Bühler’s opinion, epigraphic Śāradā dates from the end of the 8th to the beginning of the 9th century A.D., though as a literary script it may have been much older. The script used here is earlier than that of the inscriptions of Brahmor and Chatrahi[2] and may therefore have to be placed in the 7th century, perhaps even a little earlier. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit with a few mistakes have and there. One orthographical peculiarity is that a consonant is doubled before y, e.g., in amāttya (l. 3), maddhyē (l. 4), though it is not doubled in the association of r, e g., pravardhamāna (l. 2).
The date of the inscription is given both in words and numerals at the 13th day of the bright half of the month of Pausha in the year 47. For the numeral figures, decimal system has been used. They are not shown by symbols as is the case in the manuscripts from Gilgit. Obviously both the systems were known in this region at the period of our record, the manuscripts using the old system of notation by symbols and the inscriptions using the decimal system. The earliest epigraphic instance of the use of the decimal notation as pointed out by Bühler[3] goes back to the 6th century, while its use in manuscripts would date from the beginning of the Christian era. The inscription refers itself to the augmenting reign of the P.M.P. Paṭōladēva Shāhi, who was born in the Bhagadatta-vaṁśa and enjoyed the biruda Nava-Surēndrādityanandidēva, and records the construction of a town called the new Makarapura by Makarasiṁha who was the great lard of elephants (mahāgajapati), the chief minister (mahāmātyavara) and the great lord of the feudatories (mahāsāmantādhipati) of the king and who was always devoted to the feet of the illustrious Shāhi lord. Makarasiṁha is referred to as Kāñchudīya, i.e. belonging to a clan of the name of Kāñchudī, and the Sarāṁgha of Giligittā. The twon is said to have been built in the forest, ....... māla by name, after damming ( apakṛishya) a streamlet (?) the name of which is not clear.[4] The town seems to have been near the village of Hātūna situated in the district (vishaya) of Haṇēsarā which has obviously to be identified with modern Hunza.[5] Hātūna is certainly the present village of Hātūn near which the inscribed rock is. The inscription is of great historical importance and has several interesting features. First of all is the occurrence of the name Giligittā for Gilgit. The origin of this name is still uncertain ; obviously the name is not Sanskritic. But it is interesting to note that the name was known in the same phonetical form over twelve hundred years ago. This proves as untenable the opinion of some scholars that the name is of recent origin. _________________________________________________
[1] [The inscribed area measures 136 inches by 37 inches.─Ed.].
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