No. 66 ; PLATE LXIX
BĀGH IMAGE INSCRIPTION OF TEE TIME OF YAŚŌDHAVALA
[Vikrama] Year 1210

...THIS inscription is recorded on the pedestal of a stone image of Brahmā, which was found by the late M.B. Garde, the Superintendent of Archaeology in the former Gwālior State, on ‘a crude platform’ in the town of Bāgh [10] , situated about twenty kilometres north of Kukshī, the chief town of a parganā of the same name in the Dhār District in the Madhya Pradesh. Garde announced the discovery of the image in the Annual Administrative Report of the Department, for V.S. 1983 (1926-27 A.C.), page 8. But the transcript of the inscription has not so far been published. The record is important, as we shall see below; and it is edited here for the first time, from an impression prepared by myself, from the image which now exists in the Archaeological Museum at Gwālior.

...The inscription is on two facets of the pedestal of the image; and for the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the portion on the right as A and that on the left as B. Part A consists of four lines of writing, covering a space about 15 cms. broad by 7 cms. high, and part B shows only two lines of writing, the first of which is 7 cms. broad and the second about 8.5 broad, showing a height of 4 cms. The letters, though not very carefully formed, are
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[1] Read चंद्रावत्याम्‌. These two letters and some of those in the preceding line are misformed but the reading appears to be certain.
[2] Here the sibilant, as occasionally elsewhere, appears as a combination of the palatal and the dental. .
[3] The pṛishṭha-mātrā of this akshara is engraved as the sign of the secondary i and is attached to the preceding letter. .
[4] The consonant following ध is so carelessly formed as to make one indefinite about its reading; but the mātrā of ā attached to it is certain. .
[5] The sign of visarga was inserted subsequently, though it is certain. .
[6] The writing here too is very careless and one would be tempted to read the name Aṅgadatta, but it would not be construed and the sense would in that case remain incomplete. .
[7] The meaning of the six syllables ending with this letter in not clear. .
[8] The daṇḍa is redundant. .
[9] The rest of the aksharas in this line and almost all in the following line are lost. The usual ass-imprecation appears to have been engraved here. .
[10] It is an ancient place, better known by the Caves existing there. It was formerly included in the Gwālior State, and thus the inscribed image was shifted to the Museum at Gwālior. For the history of Bāgh and the antiquities found there, see I.G.I., Vol, VI, p. 183; A.S.I.R.W.C., 1914-15, p. 5; I.H.Q., Vol. XXI. p. 79, and Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIX, p. 234. Also see Vikrama-smṛitigrantha (Hindi). p. 649.

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