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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA We may now turn to the ‘ standing figure of a two-armed deity ’ against the elaborate wheel on the seal of the charter. Well, we have here an instance of the representation of the personification of Vishṇu’s mighty weapon, the Sudarśana discus, called Chakrapurusha. We are now in a position to say that the best specimen of the Chakrapurusha representation occurs in the Chakra-Vikrama type of gold coins of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II. The credit of its identification goes to Sri C. Sivaramamurti and Dr. V. S. Agrawala.[1] The latter has quoted extensively from the Ahirbudhnya-saṁhitā, a well-known text of the Pañcharātra Āgama, roughly assignable to the Gupta period. This work is essentially the glorification of Lord Vishṇu in the form of Chakrapurusha. It may further be pointed out that the reading Lōkanātha in the original is due to conjectural restoration. Trilōkanāthaḥ may as well fit in. We may supply the missing words and read Jayati Trilōkanāthaḥ(thō), etc., the meaning remaining the same.[2] It will be interesting to investigate as to how far the ideas expressed in the invocatory stanzas of the Mallasārul charter conform to the contents of the Ahirbudhnya-saṁhitā. __________________________________________________________
[1] See An Explanation of the Chakravikrama Type Coin Chandragupta II by V. S. Agrawala in the JNSI,
Vol. XVI, 1954, pp. 97-101.
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