North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

KOSGAIN STONE INSCRIPTION (No. 1) OF VAHARA

respect of protection of the earth. At the same place there are a thousand horses together with sixty elephants, more lustrous than fire and destructive of foes in battle.

(V. 2) There is ( the officer) named Gōvinda, the Mayor of Ratnapura and the (trusted) servant of the king Vāhara in all affairs.

B
Ōṁ ! Adoration to the illustrious Viśvakarman !

(Verse I) Among sūtradhāras, Chhītaku, the light of the Kōkāsa family, is well known for (his proficiency in) Śilpaśāstras (and has) the virtue of compassion in (his) heart.

(V. 2) By the favour of gods and preceptors, (he) is the ocean of five sciences, (a veritable) Nārāyaṇa in respect of draftsmanship, meritorious and truthful.

(V. 3) The Sutradhara Chhitaku (can work) on wood and stone and also on gold with ease. He possesses (knowledge of) the great science of machinery.

(V. 4). The Sūtradhāra Chhītaku knows (how to play on) vaṅka and trivaṅka (and to carve ?) creepers and leaves. (He knows) also the tri-tāla and sapta-tāla.

(V. 5) The Sūtradhāra Chhītaku, the able son of Manmatha, is a perfect master of sciences (and) has fixed his heart on Kēśava.

(V. 6) His younger brother is Māṇḍana, devoted to three (deities ?) and a reader of scriptures . . . . . . .

(V. 7) He is devoted to Brāhmaṇas. All merits together with the knowledge of astronomy will be found in Māṇḍana by the favour of Viśvakarman.

(V. 8) The writer is Dityana, the sculptor, (who is) well-conducted and devoted to his brother, and is praised for (his knowledge of ) sciences and all merits.

May there be always bliss !
In the memorable year 1552.

No. 105 ; PLATE LXXXVI
KOSGAIN STONE INSCRIPTION (No. 1) OF VAHARA.

THIS inscription was first brought to notice by Mr. Beglar in Sir A. Cunningham's Archæological Survey of India Reports, Vol. VII, p. 214. It was subsequently noticed very briefly in Mr. Nelson's Bilaspur District Gaʐetter, p. 37 and later on in R. B. Hiralal's Inscriptions in the Central Provinces and Berar.^¹ It is edited here for the first time from the original stone which is preserved in the Central Museum, Nagpur.

The inscription is engraved on one side of a slab of reddish sand-stone which was originally found in the fort of Kosgain,^² 4 miles to the north-east of Chhuri, the chief town of the former Chhuri Zamindārī in the Bilaspur District of Madhya Pradesh. The same stone contains another record, incised on the other side, which also belongs to the reign of Vāhara.^³
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¹ First ed., pp. 114-15; second ed., p. 126.
² The fort of Kosgain is described in detail by Beglar in Cunningham's A. S. I. R., Vol. XIII, pp. 153 ff.
³ No. 106, below