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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY CHALUKYAS OF GUJARAT special rights,─to the dīkshita Matrīśvara, the son of the Brāhmana Naņņasvāmin, who is of the Śāņdilya gōtra and a student of the Kāņva (śākhā) of the Adhvaryu (i.e., Yajurvēda), and belongs to the community of the Chaturvēdins of Kārmaņēya, for the performance of the five great sacrifices and other (religious) rites. (L. 26) Wherefore, gracious kings, whether born in our family or others, having realized that wordly existence possesses as (little) worth as the interior of a plaintain tree (possesses sap), and that life is (evanescent) like a water-bubble, and (having considered) that youth is liable to fade like a śirīsha flower, that prosperity is as fleeting as the water of a mountain stream, and that royal fortune is as unstable as the leaves of an aśvattha tree which is struck by a very strong wind, and being desirous of accumulating lasting fame lovely like moon- beams, should consent to and preserve this our gift. He, who with his mind shrouded by the veil of the darkness of ignorance, confiscates it or allows it to be confiscated, will incur the five great sins together with the minor sins.â (L.31) And it has been said by the holy Vyāsa, the son of Satyavatī, the best of sages (and) the redactor of the Vēdas, whose body was more lovely than an assemblage of the petals of a full-blown lotus:-
(Here follow four benedictive and imprecatory verses.) (L. 36) On the full-moon day in the bright (fortnight) of Śrāvaņa in the year four hundred increased by forty three––the year 400 (and) 40 (and) 3, (the month) Śrāvaņa, the bright (fortnight), (the lunar day) 10 (and) 5. The Dūtaka (of this charter is) the Balādhikŗita Ammagōpa. And (this charter) has been written by the Balādhikŗita Chēlla.
Seal THESE copper-plates, two in number, were sent to Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji by a Parsl gentleman of Navsāri. They were published, with photo-types and a translation, by Pandit Bhagvanlal in the Verhandlungen des VII Internationalen Orientalisten-Congresses, Arische Section, pp. 211 ff. They are edited here from the same photo-types. The plates are now deposited in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. The plates, which are inscribed on the inner sides only, measure each 11½" by 9½". They are held together by two rings, one of which has a seal, showing two figures in relief, 2" in diameter, which, according to Pandit Bhagvanlal,1 were intended to represent the donor’s parents. The seal bears the legend Śrī-Avanijanāśrayah, on the left of the male figure. Except for some letters here and there which have become much worn, the inscription is fairly well preserved. The record consists of fifty-one lines, of which twenty- five are inscribed on the first plate, and the remaining twenty-six on the second. The average size of the letters is .12". The characters belong to the western variety of the southern alphabets and resemble
those of the grants of Śryāśraya Śilāditya. As regards individual letters, we may notice
that the rare jh occurs in śarajha-, 1.23; the subscript th has a notch in sthātavyam-, 1.41,
but not in –sthityā in the same line; the superscript r is horizontal like the mātrā for medial
ē in –vimardyamāna-, 1.26; and the sign for 1 occurs in –Kāñchaļē and –Gōvindaļi-, in 1.38. A 1 P. V. .O C., p. 212. Pandit Bhagvanlal did not notice the legend on the seal.
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