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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
SUPPLEMENTARY INSCRIPTIONS GOPALPUR STONE INSCRIPTION OF VIJAYASIMHA A. Cunningham. Thereafter, it was missing for a long time; for when Mr. Natesa Aiyar visited Gōpālpur to search for it in about 1917, the could not trace the record anywhere.3 In October 1952, Dr. M. C. Chaubey of the Hiralal Archælogical Society, Jabalpur, found it built into a wall of the ākhāḍā (wresting hall) near the Kotwali building in Jabalpur, I edit the inscription from an excellent linked estampage, kindly taken by Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, Government Epigraphist for India.2 The inscribed stone had already been broken into two unequal pieces when its estampages were supplied to Dr. Keilhorn. Since then it has developed one more crack. The record consists of 21 lines. The writing, which covers a space of 4' 5" broad by 1' 9½" high, has suffered a good deal. The larger portion of it on the right-hand piece of the stone is in a fair state of preservation, and of the smaller portion on the left-hand piece, the upper four lines and the concluding two or three lines are sufficiently well preserved to be read from a careful impression. A few akshsras have, however, been lost in the two cracks mentioned above. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet, resembling those of the Jabalpur stone inscription of Jayasiṁha.³ The language is Sanskrit, and excepting ōṁ namō bhagavatē Vāsudēvāya at the commencement of the first line and the words śrī-Sōmarāja- kṛitaṁ rāj-āvalī-varṇṇanam=iti in line 16, the inscription is in verse throughout. There are, in all, 34 verses, none of which is numbered. The introductory portion of the inscription was composed in an elegant kāvya style, but owing to its sad defacement, many of the verses cannot not be deciphered completely and interpreted satisfactorily. As regards orthography, the only points that call for notice are the reduplication of the consonant following r as in-nirvvāṇaṁ, 1. 1, the use of v for b except in such forms as babhūvur=, 1. 17 and vice versa in bavṛidhī, 1. 7, and the change of the anusvāra to the dental nasal in -dvēshyan=chakāra, 1. 13.
The object of the inscription was to record the construction of a temple of Vishṇu, apparently at Karaṇbēl, by Harigaṇa, who was descended from a Brāhmaṇa of the Kaśyapa gōtra. The names of his first two ancestors, mentioned in line 17, are now lost. Lines 17 and 18 describe Malhaṇa and his concubime, Jōgalā, who was dear and faithful to him. Malhaṇa's son, Harigaṇa, is described in lines 19 and 20.4 He had two wives, Mahādēvī and another whose name is lost. He caused a lofty temple of Vishṇu to be constructed out of love for his chaste wife.5
By way of introduction the record gives a description of the Kalachuri kings of
Tripurī from Karṇa to Vijayasiṁha. The first five verses are in praise of the several
incarnations of Vishṇu, to whom the temple was dedicated. The sixth verse appears to
have praised men of learning. The seventh verse, which is now partially lost, probably
invoked the blessings of Gaṇēśa. From verse 8 begins a description of the Kalachuri
family. In the race of the Moon was born Sahasrārjuna, the ancestor of the Kalachuri
kings. Verses 12 to 16 appear to have described the illustrious Kalachuri king Kar?a,
whose name actually occurs in verses 14 and 16. He is called the seventh Chakravartin6 1 Ep. Ind., XVII, P. 73.
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