North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF CHANDRAVATI

KĀLĀJARĀ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF ĀLHANADEVA

TEXT [1]

No. 80 ; No PLATE
KĀLĀJĀRĀ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF ĀLHAṆADĒVA
[Vikrama] Year 1300

... THE inscription was transcribed by Puran Chand Nahar in his Jaina Inscriptions (1918), Pt. I, p. 266 and also by Muni Jinavijaya in his Prāchīna-Jaina-Lēkha-Saṁgraha, Pt. II, pp. 260-61, No. 426. It is stated by the latter of these scholars that he found the record in the deserted village of Kālājarā or Kālāgara, [6] some two miles from Vāsā in the (former)Sirōhī State in Rājasthān. Vāsā, which is situated on the southern border of Rōhidā, is a big village and a railway station in the Piṇdwāḍā tehsīl of the modern Sirōhī District, which gave us a number of inscriptions of the Ābū branch of the Paramāras, but the village known as Kalāgara does not now exist, and the fate of the inscription is not known. And since it is now not possible to obtain even an impression of the record, I edit it here from Jinavijaya’s transcript, reproducing the text as read by him, with my notes added to it.

... The record contains 14 lines of writing, all of which, excepting 11. 1-5 and 11-12, are fragmentary. The dimensions of the writing are not recorded. The script is Nāgarī and the inscription is all in prose. Orthography calls for no ramarks, except that kh is written as sh in 11. 4 and 6.

...It refers itself to the prosperous and victorious reign of the illustrious Mahārājādhirāja Ālhaṇasiṁhadēva, ruling at Chandrāvatī, and its object is to record the perpetual donation of some land in favour of a temple dedicated to Pārśvanātha, the 23rd Jaina Tīrthaṅkara.

...The record is dated on Monday, the tenth day of the bright half of Jyēshṭha in the (Vikrama) year 1300.

... As regards the equivalents of the date, we find:

Northern Vikrama current : Sunday, 11th May, 1242.
Northern Vikrama expired : Saturday, 30th May, 1243.
Southern Vikrama expired: Wednesday, 18th May, 1244.

...None of these equivalents shows the week-day to be a Monday, as given in the inscription, and presuming that the first akshara of this day, which was engraved as bhau, may have been read by the transcribers as sō, the last of the equivalents mentioned above appears possible.

... The donation was made by the illustrious Shētājka, probably to be taken as Khētāka or Khētā, who was then in charge of the royal seal. The details of the land appear to have lost in 11. 8-9, and in 11. 12-14 the names of some witnesses are mentioned. We cannot be certain about their number which appears to be about half a dozen. As far as we can make out from 11. 12-14, which are fragmentary, one of them is a Rāüla and at least three are Brāhmaṇas. All the names cannot be completely made out; but one of them is Aliṇa, another Davaü and
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[1] From an impression.
[2] The number of aksharas lost after this akshara cannot be made out. .
[3] That is सोमसिंह-. The sign of anusvāra is faint even on the stone. .
[4] This akshara is probably य which was obviously followed by राज्ये, which too appears to be lost. .
[5] The rest of the record is all in the local dialect and I am unable to make out the sense. .
[6] As the name is spelt by Jinavijaya and as it also appears in the inscription. In his List of Inscriptions of N. India (No. 539) D. R. Bhandarkar spelt the name as Kālājara.

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