North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF BHINMAL

No. 94 ; PLATE XC
KIRĀḌŪ STONE INSCRIPTION OF SŌMEŚVARA
Vikrama Year 1218

... THIS inscription was very briefly noticed by Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar in his Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle for 1906-07, p. 41, where he mentions its date and says that “it is entirely a new Paramāra dynasty.” Subsequently it was published with a transcript and the summary off its contents, by G.V. Acharya, in his Historical Inscriptions of Gujarāt (1912), Part III, pp. 149 and 175 ff. ; and it was again transcribed by Puran Chand Nahar in his Jaina Inscriptions (1918), Part 1. p. 251, No. 942. [1] It is edited here, for the first time, from a set of excellent impressions prepared fresh for me by the Technical Assistant of the Western Circle of the Archaeological Survey of India and supplied by the Superintending Archeologist, to both of whom I am obliged.

...The inscription was found on a pillar in the porch of a Śiva temple, locally known as of Sōmēśvara, at Kirāḍū, a deserted place about three kilometres from the village of Hātmā and about twenty-five kilometres north-northwest of Bāḍmēr, [2] the headquarters of a district in West Rājasthān. The record contains 26 lines of writing which covers a space about 42 cms. broad and 43 cms. high; but a great portion of it in its middle roughly elliptical in shape and showing its major axis to be about 25.5 cms. from 11. 3 to 19 and minor axis to be about 23 cms. in 11. 10-11 is completely lost owing to the peeling off of the surface of the stone. The existing portion of the inscription has also suffered considerably owing to some abrasions here and there. The preserved portion, however, shows that the letters were very carefully engraved. Their average height varies from .8 to 1 cm., excluding the mātrās above and flourishes below.

... The characters of the inscription are Nāgarī of the twelfth century. The forms of ch, dh and v can be distinguished from each other , the first of these letters beginning with a horizontal stroke, as in chh chira-, 1. 3, and the second showing a horn on its left limb, as in dharādhāra- dharaṇī-dhara, 1.8. The verticals of dhā are joined by a horizontal stroke, as in the latter of these examples. J and bh continue their old forms; see Sindhurāja-bhūpāla-, 1. 16. T and n are occasionally so formed as to be hardly distinguished from v; cf. namaḥ, 1. 1, and śvēta, 1. 23. The medial short u attached to r shows a fine curve at the end so as to make the letter appear is as the modern rū; see guru, 1. 21. A consonant in the end is marked not by a stroke but by what resembles a mātrā of a long ū; cf. Jajjakāt, 1. 22. Examples of wrong strokes of the chisel are occasionally to be seen, e.g., in the formation of ṭa in Karṇṇāṭa, 1. 15, of va in varshē, 1. 17, and of d in durggau appearing as vurggau in 1. 23.

... The language is Sanskrit and the composition has a very few minor types of mistakes. Except for a small sentence paying homage the sarvajña, in the first line, and the portion giving the details of the date in the end, the record is metrically composed throughout. It contains 27 stanzas, wholly or partially preserved, all of which are numbered. [3] Orthographical peculiarities are more or less the same as to be seen in contemporary writings, e.g. (1) denoting b by the sign for v as in śavda, 1. 13; (2) the occasional use of the dental for the palatal sibilant, as in sasvat, 1. 2; (3) the doubling of a consonant following r, as in durvvāra, 1. 11; and (4) the general use of an anusvāra to denote a final m, as in v. 21.
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[1] Acharya has stated that he prepared the transcript from a rubbing from the Bhāvnagar Museum, whereas Nahar has not mentioned the source of his transcript; but he appears to have prepared it from the original stone. We find that besides some minor differences in both the transcripts. the later one gives some names also, e.g., that of Dhandhuka in v. 12 and of Sōmēśvara in v. 17, which are missing in the former. Another important variation is that whereas Acharya read सोछराज, तणुकोट्ट and य(शो)देव: in vv. 14, 25 and 27 respectively. Nahar read the same as सोछदराज, तणुकोद य(शो)देय : It is possible that the rubbing before Acharya may have been indistinct and the letters which were then damaged on the original may not have come out in it.
[2] For the antiquities of Kirāḍū see A.S.I.R., W.C. for 1906-07. pp. 40 ff.
[3] The numbers of stanzas 7 to 11 appear to have been lost in the damaged caused to the stone.

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