South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

(V.18.) Surely, these sons of Aśvarâja are the four sons of Daśaratha who have returned to the earth out of a desire to live in one and the same womb.

(V. 19.) Does not this Vastupâla accompanied by his younger brother Têjaḥpâla delight everybody’s heart like the first month of spring followed by the second ?

(V. 20.) Remembering, as it were, the precept of the law-books that one should never go alone on a road, the two brothers have set out together on the path of virtue infested by the robber of infatuation.

(V. 21.) May it constantly rise, this blameless pair of brothers, the magnificent pains of whose arms are as long as yokes, (and) who made the Kṛita age appear even in the fourth age !

(V. 22.) May the body of these two brothers, by whose fame this circle of the earth looks as if it consisted of pearls, be free from disease for a very long time !

(V. 23.) Although the two hands (of a man) are due to springing from one (body), yet one of them is left (or bad) ; but of these two brothers neither (was so, although they had sprung from one father), as both were honest (or right).

(V. 24.) By marking the earth everywhere with religious establishments, that pair of brothers forcibly put their foot on the throat of the Kali (age).

(V. 25.) Now, there was born in the race of the Chaulukya heroes a powerful man, the front-ornament of his branch, called Arṇôrâja.

(V. 26.) After him Lavaṇaprasâda obtained the earth, whose splendour was not concealed, who destroyed his enemies, (and) whose fame, as white as shells polished by the waters of the celestial river,^[1] roamed beyond the salt sea.

(V. 27.) The son of this (king), who was the image of Daśaratha and Kakutstha, was Vîradhavala, who swallowed the troops of hostile kings. When the flood of his fame was spreading the skill in the art of amorous visits on the part of unfaithful women, whose minds were tormented by love, was foiled.

(V. 28.) The wise Chaulukya Vîradhavala did not even lend his ear to the whispers of the slanderers when they were talking about those two ministers, (and) they made the rule of their master brilliant by a profusion of prosperity (and) tied up herds of horses and troops of elephants in the court of his palace.

(V. 29.) By this pair of ministers approaching his knees the prince, I am sure, easily embraces the goddess of fortune, as by a pair of arms reaching to the knees.^[2]

Again─ (V. 30.) There is this (mountain) Arbuda, the peak of a range of mountains, the son of the mountain that is the father-in-law of the husband of Gaurî,^[3] who, carrying the Mandâkinî on his top plaited round with clouds, personates the moon-bearer^[4] (whose) brother-in-law (he is), (as the latter carries the Gaṅgâ on his head covered with thick braids).

(V. 31.) In one place on this (mountain) love enters even him who strives after deliverance, when he beholds the lovely women enjoying themselves ; in another even the mind of a frivolous man becomes indifferent to the world, when he sees the line of sanctuaries to be visited by ascetics.

(V. 32.) From the altar of the sacrificial fire of Vaśishṭha distinguished by virtuousness^[5] there arose a certain man who possessed a splendour of body surpassing the radiance of the son
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^[1] I.e. the Gaṅgâ.
^[2] Compare Râm. I. 1, 10.
^[3] I.e. the Himâlaya, the father-in-law of Śiva.
^[4] I.e. Śiva.
^[5] I take śrêyaḥ-śrêshṭha- to stand for śrêyasi śrêshṭha- and śrêyas to be a synonym of dharma, as taught by Amara I, 4, 24, Halâyudha I. 125, and Hêmachandra, Anêkârthas. II. 580, and Abhidhânach. 1372.