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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Śaiva ascetic in charge of the temple of Sōmanāthadēva (Śiva) and that the grant was made in his favour but was meant to be also enjoyed by his successors in the charge of the temple in question. We have numerous grants made permanently in favour of a single individual since they were meant to be enjoyed also by his descendants. The above Śaivite establishment is stated to have included, besides the temple, a considerable area of land styled Sōmanāthadēva-pallikā. The third of the published inscription from Shērgarh is engraved on a stone slab now embedded in the front wall of the Lakshmī-Narāyaṇa temple, although, like the other inscribed slab in that temple, it must have belonged originally to an older temple of Śiva called Sōmanāthadēva.[1] The importance of this inscription lies in the fact that it is the copy of a copper-plate grant of the Paramāra king Udayāditya (known dates : V. S. 1116=1059 A.D., V. S. 1137=1080 A. D., and V. S. 1143=1086 A.D.), none of whose copper-plate charters has so far been published. It is, however, a matter of regret that some parts of the record, including the passage containing the date, cannot be made out owing to damages in the stone and to its lower end being built into the wall. The inscription records the grant of a village made by the Paramāra king, when he was stationed at Kārpāsikā-grāma and took a ceremonial bath on the occasion of the Damanaka-parvan, in favour of the god Sōmanāthadēva (Śiva) of the Kōśavardhana durga (fort) which, as noted above, is called giri (hill) in another of the Shērgarh inscriptions. There is no doubt that Kōśavardhana was the old name of modern Shērgarh and that the temple of the god Sōmanāthadēva, now untraceable, lay in an old hill-fort at the place.
The published inscriptions from Shērgarh (ancient Kōśavardhana), it will be seen, reveal the existence of two religious establishments, one Buddhist and the other Śaivite. Amongst the inscriptions traced by me at the place, including the above, there are two epigraphs disclosing the interesting fact that, side by side with the Buddhist monastery and Śaiva shrine, a great religious establishment of the Jains also flourished at Kōśavardhana in the early medieval period. Another unpublished inscription at Shērgarh also interested me considerably. Unfortunately all these three records are preserved unsatisfactorily, the pieces of stone on which they are engraved being mutilated. The stone bearing the last of the above three unpublished inscriptions was found within the fort. The record in four lines contains two verses, numbered in figures, and the date at the end. But the left half of the epigraph is broken away and could not be traced. The third line of the extant portion of the inscription (5 inches by 12 inches) containing the end of the first verse in the Śārdūlavikrīḍita metre and the beginning of the second in Anushṭubh reads : ºyā Gaṅgādharō naṁdatu || 1 || Dṛiḍhaṁ nīra-gṛihaṁ bhavyaṁ kṛita[vān], while the date in line 4 reads : Saṁvat || 1285 || varkhē(rshē). There is no doubt that the first verse of this epigraph, dated V. S. 1285 (1228 A.D.), invokes the god Śiva under the name Gaṅgādhara (i.e. ‘ the bearer of the Ganges [in the matted hair on his head]’) and the second records the construction[2] of a nīra-griha by an individual whose name is lost. The expression nīra-grihs literally means ‘a water-house’ and the invocation, in connection with its construction, of the Gaṅgādhara aspect of Śiva is easily intelligible. But the nature of this nīra-gṛiha can hardly be determined although it seems to be the same as Persian ābdār-khānah, ābdār being a person entrusted with the charge of water for drinkin.[3] The first of the two Jain inscriptions referred to above was also discovered in the fort. It is engraved on a piece of stone that was found embedded in a wall. The stone was so dressed as to leave a broad border on the sides of an excavated bed meant for the incision of the record. The border was apparently meant for the protection of the writing. The inscription covering a space, about 20 inches by 20 inches, is beautifully engraved on the said bed. It contains 34 lines of writing. ______________________________________________________
[1] Ibid., pp. 132 ff.
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