North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF CHANDRAVATI

GIRVAḌ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF PARTĀPASIṀHA

...The inscription is on a black stone slab, now built into a niche on the left side wall of the sabhā-maṇḍapa of a temple dedicated to the god Paṭṭa-Nārāyaṇa, as locally called and also mentioned in the inscription. The temple stands about a kilometre south-west of the village which is now known as Girvaḍ, or Girvar, evidently a corruption of Griviḍa of the inscription, in the Sirōhī District of Rājasthān. [1] The record contains 39 lines of writing, which covers a space 75.5 cms. broad by 57 cms. high. The average height of the letters is about 1 cm. The inscription is in a good state of preservation, with the exception that two letters are lost in abrasions in 1. 22, and a few in the last three lines have disappeared due to the flaking off of the portion of the surface of the stone, here and there. The letters are neatly written, but the engraver has done his work most slovenly. There are instances of corrections, omissions and additions. and also of scoring off some of the letters and their parts, etc., all these making the task of the decipherer rather painful, as to be seen from the notes appended to the text, below.

... The inscription is written in the Nāgarī alphabet of the thirteenth century A.C. The initial i. which appears about half a dozen times (11. 14., 17, 19, 27 and 31), is almost in its modern form; and the signs for the consonants ch, dha and v are distinct from one another. The first of these aksharas shows its loop triangular, often with the horizontal stroke above, and the second has developed a horn on its left limb. The letter b has a separate sign of its own, as in Arbuda, in 1. 1; bh occasionally resembles t, as in abhinandyamāna- 1. 7; and the subscript form of r is shown by a serif attached to the lower extremity of the letter, e.g., in vipra, 1. 11. The tail of the left limb of t and h is often not marked; cf. e.g., in patnī, 1.4, hētu-, 1. 27, and Kēlhaṇa, 1.21.

...The language of the record is Sanskrit; and leaving the last four lines which are in a local dialect, and also with the exception of a short sentence paying obeisance to Purushōttama, in the beginning, the record is metrically composed. The metres employed are all well known; but the rare bhujaṅgaprayāta and the still rare mattamayūra are also used, respectively in vv. 24.25 and 43. Two of the pādas in a verse involve yati-bhaṅga. [2] The record has 46 stanzas, all of which are numbered. The style is fluent and the poet was a good student of the kāvya-literature, often imitating the writing of Kālidāsa and Śrīharsha, as can be seen by the reading of verses 6, 9, 17 and 31.

...With reference to orthography, we may note that (1) a class-consonant following r is not unoften doubled, as in pūrṇṇa-, 1. 9, but not in many other instances, e.g., in nirjjara, 11. 16 and 17; (2) the dental sibilant is occasionally put for the palatal, e.g., in suddhayē, 1. 26; (3) the medial dipthongs are sometimes shown by the pṛishṭha-mātrā; (4) the avagraha sign is often used to show the elision of a after ē or ō, but sometimes wrongly, as in that=ārbuda, 1. 2, and vā = sya, 1.31 ; (5) a daṇḍa is occasionally put so close to a letter as to appear as a mātrā attached to it, as after -mānaṁ, 1. 7, and ratnaṁ, 1. 12; and (6) the sign of anusvāra is throughout used denote a nasal, except sometimes n, as in sainya, 1. 6, but not in Chandrāvatī- and baṁdha-, in 11. 15 and 17. There are errors of spellings, some of which may be ascribed to the writer, e.g., ujjvala in 11. 5 and 10 is written as ujvala., tadjña in 1. 9 as tajña, lasad-dyuti in 1. 12 as lasadyuti, and āsīd=dvijēndra- in 1. 20, as āsītvijēndra. The dynastic name appears as Paramāra in v. 4, but as Pramāra in v. 2, which is for metrical exigencies, as in some other inscriptions.

...The inscription is a praśasti, a laudatory account ; and its main object is to record the innovation of the temple of Pāṭa-Nārāyaṇa, or, Paṭṭa-Nārāyaṇa, at Griviḍa, by a Brāhmaṇa minister of Pratāpasiṁha, a Paramāra ruler of Chandrāvatī (v. 30). The work of repairing the temple was commenced, as stated in words in vv. 36-37, on the 10th of the bright half of Āśvina of the (Vikrama) year 1343, and finished, as mentioned in words vv. 37-38, and repeated in figures in the last line, on the 5th of the bright half of Jyēshṭha of (the Vikrama) year 1344, on Monday. The latter of these dates regularly corresponds, for the southern V. expired, 1344, to 7th May, 1288 A.C.; and the former, which contains no means of verification but is
____________________________________________

[1] The village is situated about 12 kms. due north-west by west of Ābū, and is almost 4kms. south of the village Chandala which is connected with Ābū Road by a metalled road. For the antiquities of the place, see P. R. A. S. I., W. C., referred to above. In his visit to the place, in 1906-07, D.R. Bhandarkar saw the inscribed slab deposited in the sabhāmaṇḍapa of the temple, along with some other sculptures.
[2] In v. 33, for which, see text. n.

Home Page