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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 25─ SIRPUR INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF BALARJUNA (1 Plate) MORESHWAR G. DIKSHIT, RAIPUR The accompanying inscription, published here for the first time, was found on the 2nd January 1955, in the course of excavations conducted by me, under the auspices of the University of Saugar, at Sirpur in the Raipur District of Madhya Pradesh. The stone bearing the inscription was found lying upside down on the floor in the northern verandah of the monastery at a depth of 8 feet below the surface. The stone is a yellowish variety of soft sandstone, measuring about 14 inches broad, 8¼ inches high and about 3 inches thick. From the chisel marks at its back, it appears to have been fixed up high on the wall near which it was found. The slab was very heavily laden with moisture at the time of its discovery and it was with repeated hot sand-baths that it could be restored to its original hardness. The inscription consists of 14 lines of writing, each line containing about 32 letters of nearly one half inch in height. The characters are early Nāgarī current in the 7th or 8th century A.D. and are incised neatly and beautifully and also deeply, particularly in the upper part of the letters. The writing is generally in a good state of preservation except at the upper left and lower right corners and at the beginning of lines 11-14. A few scratches also appear on the surface evidently resulting from its fall from the original position in the wall. The inscription is in Sanskrit verse throughout except the concluding sentence occurring in line 14. The sign for v is invariably used for b. As regards orthography, it may be noted that s, ś and sh are clearly distinguished. Of lexical interest are two words vyañjana (lines 8-9) and sētikā (line 8).[1]
The inscription opens with a stanza in praise of the lotus-feet of the Sugata (i.e. Buddha). The next few verses record the construction of a monastery (vihāra) by a Bhikshu named Ānandaprabha during the reign of Bālārjuna, as well as of the establishment of a sattra (feeding house) for the monks residing in the monastery, for the upkeep of which a white-rice field was given. The field is stated to have been purchased from the Saṁgha and given together with the supplementary crops grown in it. The monks were to enjoy it in succession till the sun shines in the sky.[2] The eulogy (praśasti) was composed by the illustrious Sumaṅgala, son of Tāradatta, and the inscription was incised by one Prabhākara. The importance of the inscription lies in the fact that it enables us to fix the date of the Vihāra in which it was found ; for king Bālārjuna mentioned in it could be no other than the homonymous king Mahāśivagupta alias Bālārjuna of the Pāṇḍava dynasty, who is known from several inscriptions[3] and whose reign-period is generally assigned to c. 590-650 A.D.[4] or about the first quarter of the 7th century A.D. This king, though Śaivite by religion, gave liberal patronage to Buddhism, ___________________________________________________________ [1] The word sētikā occurs in the Anjañeri grant (A) of Pṛithivīchandra Bhōgaśakti (above, Vol. XXV, p. 232)
and in the unpublished Surang Mound (Sirpur) inscription. [The word vyañjana meaning ‘condiment’ is of common
occurrence while sētikā found in several epigraphic and literary records in the sense of a measure. See below note
2.─ Ed.]
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