South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

8 [ā]bhyāṁ vīthyāṁ^[1] sā(mā)tā-pitṛi-puṇyēna (ṇy-ārthaṁ) Mārtarāṇāṁ^[2] pradatā(ttē) | [ē]bhi[r=a]-
9 .....^[3] niyata-bhōgaṁm=utpadyatē^[4] [ | *] tē(tāḥ) hi samālabha(bhyāḥ) saṁdi(dhi)-pātē=ṇya- (nya)[ch=cha]
10 ......... turma^[5] .............. chatubhi chatubhi mā^[6] .... ōbha ....i.....i....kā
11 ............ ḍātavya pa^[7]130 pa^[7] 5 .............hē
12 ......... svītasya^[8] syaṁ vaṇik(ṇig)-dātavyam=iti [||*]

B. Eulogy of Sun-god, composed by Chhittapa

In course of my tour in Madhya Bhārat and Rājasthān about the end of 1952 and the beginning of 1953, already referred to above, I reached Bhīlsā on the 20th of January 1953. While putting up at the local Dak Bungalow, I had the opportunity of inspecting a number of antiquities gathered in the compound of the Dak Bungalow itself. I was told that the relics had been collected by a local enthusiast named Rājmal Jain Maḍavaiyā but that the Archaeological Department of the old Gwalior State (now Madhya Bhārat) had recently taken interest in them and arranged them as exhibits in a sort of an open air museum.^[9] Some of the antiquities were found to be valuable from the historical and aesthetic points of view and I was really very sorry to see them exposed to damage by the sun and rains. It appeared to me that they were safer when they were hidden in the earth. In the interest of antiquarian studies in India, it is extremely desirable that the exhibits of the open air museum in the compound of the Bhīlsā Dak Bungalow should be properly preserved in a suitable building.

As Bhīlsā was once the famous seat of the Sun-god Bhāillaº or Bhailasvāmin, two stone inscriptions among the exhibits of the open air museum attracted my special attention. Both the records are mutilated ; but an interesting fact about them is that they contain each a eulogy of the Sun-god. There is little doubt that the inscribed stone slabs were originally embedded in the walls of the Bhāillaº or Bhailasvāmin temple at Bhīlsā.

The first of the two epigraphs is extremely damaged. The right had side of the stone has broken away and the writing of the lower lines is completely obliterated. Of the first six or seven lines of the inscription a few expressions only can be satisfactorily deciphered. Each of the lines contains about thirty aksharas in the space about 17″ in length. The characters are Nāgarī and the epigraph may be palaeographically assigned to a date about the eleventh century. The language of the record is Sanskrit. The inscription begins with one of the several forms of the Siddham symbol which is followed by the passage Ōṁ namaḥ Sūryāya. Then follow the stanzas in praise of the Sun-god. The first half of verse 1 in line 1 begins with the expression Udayagiri and seems to end with the word vihāya. The second half of the stanza begins the amva(mba)ra-chūḍāmaº, the following letters of the line (line 1) being broken away and lost. Line 2 begins with the expression anitāº possibly introduction the first or third foot of a different verse. The mention of

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^[1] Read imē vīthyau. This seems to refer to the gift of the second and third vīthīs mentioned in lines 6-7.
^[2] Read Mātṛīṇāṁ or better Mātṛibhyaḥ.
^[3] The intended reading seems to be ābhir=api referring to the three vīthīs granted.
^[4] Read bhōga utpaº.
^[5] The reading may be pitur=mātuś=cha referring to the two gifts made in the name of the donor’s parents.
^[6]Read chaturbhiś=chaturbhir=māº. The reference may be to a period of four month (māsaiḥ).
^[7] For this contraction, see lines, 4, 6 and 7 above.
^[8] The intended word may be svīkṛitasya although its exact implication in the present context cannot be determined.
^[9] See Quinquennial Administration Report of the Archaeological Department, Gwalior State, for the Saṁvats 1998-2002 (Years 1942-46), pp. 1-2.