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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA a piece of writing which, mutilated as it is, shows the writer to have been endowed with no mean poetic power. Prof. Bühler[1] has well shown that the author, trusting to the effect of a plain, yet forcible narrative and characterization of events and individuals, makes spare use of those, often merely conventional, ornaments which abound in later inscriptions. With the exception of a play on the word Sudarśana, the name of the lake, and one or two cases of an upamâ, the so-called arthâlaṁkâras may be said to be absent from his text. On the other hand, he shows a decided predilection for that kind of śabdâlaṁkâra which consists in the repetition of one and the same group of syllables in neighbouring word (as e.g. in praharaṇa-vitarana, l. 10, samagrâṇâṁ . . . -vishayâṇâṁ vishayâṇâṁ, l. 11, avidhêyânâṁ Yaudhêyânâṁ, l. 12, -nâmnâ . . . -dâmnâ . . . Rudradâmnâ, l. 15, śaktêna dântên=âchapalên=âvismitên=âryyêṇ=âhâryyêṇa, l. 19, etc.),[2] and he occasionally makes use of the ornament of alliteration (as e.g. in akṛimêṇa sêtubandhên=ôpapannaṁ supprativihita-ppranâḷî-parîvâha-mîḍhavidhânaṁ, l. 2, etc.).
The general purport of the inscription has been given above. It remains to point out briefly some details, the full discussion of which, after all that has already been written about them,[3] would necessitate a careful examination of other records some of which are in course of being re-edited critically by another scholar, and lies beyond the scope of this paper. The principal figure in our inscription is (the Western Kshatrapa,) the king (and) Mahâkshatrapa Rudradâman ; the name of his father (the Kshatrapa Jayadâman) was given in line 4, but has disappeared ; his father’s father was the king (and) Mahâkshatrapa, Lord Chashṭana (l. 4). Form an epithet in line 15 we learn that Rudradâman himself acquired or assumed the title of Mahâkshatrapa. Other epithets in lines 11 and 12 tell us that by his own valour he gained, and became the lord of, eastern and western Âkarâvantî,[4] the Anûpa country, Ânarta, Surâshṭra, Śvabhra, Maru, Kachchha, Sindhu-Sauvîra, Kukura, Aparânta, Nishâda and other territories ; that he destroyed the Yaudhêyas ; and that he twice defeated Sâtakarṇi,[5] the lord of Dakshiṇâpatha, but on account of the nearness of their connection did not destroy him.─ The storm by which the lake Sudarśana was devastated is stated (in lines 4 and 5) to have taken place on the first of the dark half of Mârgaśîrsha in te 72nd year─ according to the actual wording of the text─ of Rudradâman himself ; but the meaning clearly is[6] that it took place during the reign of Rudradâman, on the given day in the 72nd year of the era used by Rudradâman (and the Western Kshatrapas generally). With other scholars I feel convinced that this is the Śaka era,[7] and taking the year in the ordinary way as an expired year, I find that the date would correspond to either the 18th October, or more probably the 16th November, A.D. 150. Accordingly, our inscription may be assumed to have been composed about A.D. 151 or 152.
The minister Suviśâkha, by whom the work of restoring the dam of the lake was carried
out, is called (in line 19) a Pallava and the son of Kulaipa, and is stated (in line 18) to have
been appointed by the king (Rudradâman) to govern (the province of) Ânarta and Surâshṭra.─
The officials who in earlier times had constructed and perfected the lake under Chandragupta
and Aśôka respectively were (line 8) the provincial governor, the Vaiśya[8] Pushvagupta and
the ‘ Yavana king ’ Tushâspha, governing (the province or district under Aśôka).
[1] See his Die Indischen Inschriften, p. 51 f.
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