North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

RATANPUR STONE INSCRIPTION OF JAJALLADEVA I: YEAR 866

(L.30) Therefore this (Brāhmaṇa), his sons, sons' sons and other (lineal) descendants should enjoy, without any interference, this (village) together with shares, enjoyments, taxes, (dues in) gold coins, fines for (illegal) distillation etc. as a self-contained village as long as the moon, the sun, the earth, the ocean, wind and the sky will endure.

(Verse 15) Vikramarāja (whose name is ) preceded by tri (i.e., Trivikramarāja), Vikramarāja who is marvellous in valour and Arjuna, the best of warriors, who has vanquished his enemies-these have, indeed pledged (their) true word.

(V. 16) Then the minister Vigraharāja,^¹ the banker Yaśa and the rich Dhōdhāka, observing the law of truth, gave land to the Brāhmaṇa Kēśava. (Here follow five benedictive and imprecatory verses.)

( V. 22) The good poet Alhaṇa, the owner of (the village) Garbha,^² who is a devotee of Īśa, wrote on the copper (plates) excellent sentences in (letters resembling) the eyes of a Chakōra. The clever Hāsala, the repository of all mechanical arts, inscribed them in splendid lines and excellent letters. The year 831 of the lord of Chēdi.

NO. 77; PLATE LXVA
RATANPUR STONE INSCRIPTION OF JAJALLADEVA I : (KALACHURI) YEAR 866

THIS inscription is incised on the beautifully polished surface of a red sand-stone which was found at Ratanpur, 16 miles north of Bilaspur, the headquarters of the Bilaspur District in Madhya Pradesh. It is now deposited in the Central Museum, Nagpur. The record was edited, with a translation and a lithograph, by Dr. Kielhorn in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol.I, pp.33 ff. It is edited here from the original stone and the lithoraph accompanying Dr. Kielhorn's article.

The inscription consists of 31 lines. The writing originally covered a space of about 2' 2 ½'' broad by 2' 2” high. At present, a small portion of the upper proper left corner and a large portion of the lower right corner of the stone are broken away, so that from 4 to 9 aksharas are missing at the end of the first five lines and from 2 to about 25 aksharas at the beginning of the last thirteen lines.' Small protection of the stone have also been broken away at the upper right and lower left corners, which had resulted in the loss or mutilation of about a dozen aksharas. Further, some aksharas which were clearly legible in Dr. Kielhorn's time, have since been broken away from the proper right edge of the stone.^³ I have. however, succeeded in reading a few aksharas from their traces on the stone⁴which Dr. Kielhorn found illegible from the impression supplied to him.

The characters are Nāgarī. The size of the letters is about . 5”. The pṛishṭhamātrās are used in some places. The sign of avagraha occurs in 11.12,18,24 and 29. The language is Sanskrit, and except for the introductory obeisance to Śiva and the date at the end, the inscription is metrically composed throughout. There are 34 verses, all of which are numbered. In respect of orthography it may be noted that the dental s is used for the palatal ś in many places; see, e. g., sapharī-,1.1 sirasi, 1.2,=vaṁsē, 1.4, and vice versa in
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¹This minister is mentioned in the next inscription also, See below, No.77, 1.27; see also No. 75, 1.13.
²See No. 75, 1. 15. This village is probably mentioned in 1.30 of the next inscription (No.77) also.
³Viz., ni and prī at the beginning of 11. 17 and 18 respectively.
⁴See the beginning of 1.29, which contains a reference to Karṇa, the illustrious Emperor of the Kalachuri dynastyof Tripurī.