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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI
No. 35; PLATE XXIX A THIS inscription, though listed in the first edition of R.B Hiralal’s Inscriptions in C.P. and Berar, published in 1916, was very briefly noticed only in the second edition of that work, published in 1931. It is edited here for the first time from the original stone which I examined in situ and from inked estampages kindly supplied by the Superintendent, Archaeological Survey, Central Circle, Patna.1 At Saugor, the chief town of the Saugor District in the State of Madhya Pradesh, a number of sculptures were collected from the neighbouring places many years ago2 and built up into small imitation kiosks in the four corners of the garden of a military messhouse. The inscription is incised on a slab of red sand-stone fixed on the top of a panel of the same kind of stone which is built into one of those kiosks. In the panel below, the principal figures are those of a man who who has folded his hands in salutation and a woman, probably his wife, who has placed her right on the head of a small female figure, evidently their daughter, who also stands with folded heads. Behind the male figure appears a horse and behind the latter, another male figure, apparently a groom, holding the reins of the horse.3
The record has been very much worn away by exposure to weather. It consists of five lines, of which the last one commences in the centre. Several aksharas in the last three lines have become more or less indistinct. The average size of letters is Iââ. The characters are of the proto-Nagari alphabet resembling those of the stone inscription at Chhoti Deori.4 The form of the initial i is, however, different , since the curve below the two dots is here open at the top; t has not yet developed a vertical at the top; in its subscript form, the letter is laid on its side, see-bhattaraka-in i.2 ; j still retains its three horizontal bars, see-Máhárájadhiraja, 1. I; p is open at the top while v, which resembles its upper portion, is closed,see-pravarddhamana-,1.2; the lower end of the wedge of r is in some cases very much elongated, see Paramesvara-, 1.3. These palaeographic peculiarities indicate that the record probably belongs to the middle of the eighth century A.C.5 The language is Sanskrit and the record is in prose throughout. The orthography does not call for any special notice.
The inscription opens with an obeisance to Siva. It refers itself to the reign of the
Paramobhattaraka, Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara the illustrious Sánkaraganadeva, who
meditated on the feet of the Paramabháttaraka, Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara, the illustrious
Vamarajadeva.6 This is the oldest record in which the name of Vamarajadeva is mentioned
1This inscription has since been edited by me in the Ep.ind., Vol.XXVII, pp.163 f. |
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