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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA NAGPUR STONE INSCRIPTION OF NARAVARMAN though not altogether correct, than from the German translation.”[1] But he had no opportunity of examining the stone on which the inscription is engraved and had to depend on impressions. He therefore could not read some of the letters correctly. The inscription is edited here from two excellent inked impressions prepared fresh and kindly supplied to me, at my request, by Shri V.P. Rode, the Curator of the Central Museum, Nagpur, where the stone bearing it is exhibited. Its original find-spot is unknown.[2] ...The record is incised on the countersunk surface of a loose stone slab measuring 139.5 cms. broad by 84 cms. high, including the double border on each of the four sides. The writing covers a space 136 cms. broad and 80 cms. high, including the flourishes above. It consists of forty lines which form the main body of the record ; and an additional line, which is meant to beseach the readers to appreciate the worth of the composition, is inscribed on the lower border of the stone, in letters almost double in size of those appearing in the main record. The writing is not in a good state of preservation ; it has suffered deplorably, specially in the lower half of the stone ; and, taking the inscription as a whole, a good number of letters have suffered severely, some of which are totally lost and the others can be recognised only in their outlines. There are instances when the text had to be conjecturally restored even after my personal examination of the stone, and despite this, there are lacunae in in 11. 24, 33 and 37, where Kielhorn’s transcript too fails to afford any help. The subjoined transcript, how-ever, has been prepared by a patient and careful examination of both the impressions referred to above and also from by personal examination of the stone on which the record is inscribed.
...The height of an ordinary letter is about 1.5 cms.; conjuncts with subscripts are about 2 cms. high. In the lower half of the record their size is slightly reduced. The characters are Nāgarī of the 12th century, to which the inscription belongs. Of the vowels, the initial short i is formed of two hollow circles placed horizontally and endowed with a top-stroke, as in it=yanupamaḥ, 1. 8, and also when the first of these circles shows a fine tail and second a hook above ; cf. iva, 1. 11. The initial ē has assumed its modern form ; see ēka-ēva, 1. 1. Of the consonants, k as the first member of a conjunct has its loop joined to the vertical not directly but by a horizontal stroke, cf. muktā, 1. 3 ; the left limb of kh as a subscript is shown only by a serif, e.g. in prēṅkhat, 1. 4 ; the letter ṅ continues to be devoid of its dot, see gaṅgā-saṅgama, 1.7 ; and chh and th in their subscript form are laid flat and look almost alike ; cf. –chchhalād-, and sthūla, both in 1. 13. Dh has a horn on its left limb and the verticals of dhā are joined by a horizontal stroke, as in satyābhidhānō-, 1. 8. On rare occasions the forms of ch, dh and v are hardly distinguishable, e.g. cha valaṁ, 1. 19, where the first two letters are almost alike, and durddharā-; 1. 2, where the subscript dh is engraved as ch. The letter dh is in a transitional stage ; for, whereas it shows its earlier form in vibhūtayē, 1. 1, occasionally it is slightly to be distinguished from t, as in bhūtiṁ bhajatē, 1. 3, where both these letters are dissimilar, and lēbhē, 1. 5, where it has developed a fine tail of the left limb. R occasionally shows a wedge, as in varūthinī, 1. 15, but not in karaṭa, 1. 21 ; and as a latter member of a conjunct it often appears in its complete form with the first member only half engraved, as in trayē- and prabhṛitayaḥ, both in 1. 1 and prāyaḥ in 1. 15.
...The language of the inscription is Sanskrit ; and except for ōṁ namō Bhāratyai in the
beginning and the date at the end of 1. 40. the whole record is metrically composed. It contains 58 verses ; they are not numbered.-Orthographical peculiarities are almost the same as
to be noticed in the contemporary records, viz., (1) b is throughout denoted by the sign for v,
cf. vibhrāṇā, 1. 1 ; (2) the consonant following r is very often reduplicated, see garvva, 1.4; (3)
the medial dipthongs are generally denoted by pṛishṭha-mātrās, but in the first line we find the
mātrās at the top with ornamental flourishes ; (4) the final m is wrongly changed to anusvāra at the end of a stich, as in vv. 4, 9 and 13 ; (5) combinations of consonants and nasals have been
indiscriminatly represented either by anusvāra or para-savarṇa, e.g., in saṁchāra, 1. 28, but
[1] For Kielhorn’s remarks on the English and German translations of the inscription, see his article in op.
cit., p. 180 and n, 3 on the same page.
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