North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

in 1859, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume XXVIII, pp. 1.8 ; but his article is not illustrated. He describes the stone in the following words : “It measures 13½” (34.3 cms.) in height by 13” (33.1 cms.) in breadth, beside a raised and rounded margin. It is thick and heavy, and shaped upon the back into some from of which the intent is not now recognizable. Its material is greenstone, and tough in quality.” The text of the inscription was republished, with a photozincograph, in the Archaeological Survey of west India, No. 10, pp. 111-12 ; and Hall again published his text and translation thereof in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume VI, pp. 536-37, to which he presented the stone ; and it is now in the Cabinet of that Society, at New Haven. The inscription was re-edited by F. Kielhorn, from impressions supplied to him by Mr. Herbert C. Tohwan of the Yale University, New Haven, in 1891, in the Indian Antiquary, Volume XX. pp. 310 ff., giving his own transcript, in Roman characters, but without a facsimile and with the remark that “the text of the inscription, even after this (Hall’s) note is capable of improvement.” [1] The record is edited here from a rubbing prepared by Professor Van Name and supplied to me by the Chief Epigraphist, who noticed the epigraph under his No. C-2041 of 1963-64 of Ind. Ep. It may be remarked here that my reading of the text differs at a number of places from that of Kielhorn, attention to which will be drawn in proper places.

...The inscribed portion covers a space measuring 31 cms. broad by 33.5 cms. high and contains eighteen lines of writing, which are fairly preserved. The lower part of the stone bears a crude representation of Śiva, in a double-lined rectangle with beaded sides, 6.5 cms. broad and 4.5 cms. high, and on his proper right side are three and on the proper left side four figures of males and females of about the same height, paying devotion to him and probably representing the members of the family of the person who built the temple referred to in the record, as we shall presently see. The height of an individual letter varies from 1 to 1.5 cms., exclusive of the occasional flourishes above the top strokes.

...The characters are Nāgarī of the thirteenth century A.C., and show no special features excepting that the initial a begins with a curve, as in adhikē, 1.7, and with a little variation in āśīt, 1. 11 ; the loop of ch is angular so as to distinguish it form v, e.g., in paṁcha, 1. 4 ; the left limb of dh is endowed with a horn as in dharmma, 1. 11, but not when the letter is a subscript, as in śuddha, in the same line ; and the left-hand stroke of bh is occasionally taken below so as to end in a tail and to resemble t, as in Bhāratī, 1.2. The left limb of ś is often engraved so as to appear like the Nāgarī numeral 2, as in Kēśavēna, 1. 12, and the horizontal joining bar of s is often omitted, e.g. in tasy-, 1. 10, and sadā appearing as rādā in 1. 15.

... In some cases limbs of letters have been omitted in the process of carving, whereas in others arbitrary touches of the chisel have transformed their expected shape, often confounding them with others. Some of the glaring examples of the first type of error are : rāja engraved as gaja and sva in Māhēśvara as mva, both in 1. 5; the vē as dē in kēśavēna, 1. 12, and sa as rā in sadā, 1.15. Examples of the second type of mistake are : rā engraved as sa in Dhārāyāṁ, 1. 4 ; Dēvapāla as Dērvashāla and rājyē as rājō, 1.6, and -naṅga-samāna engraved as -naṁma-sramāna, 1. 10. Some of the letters are damaged but can be restored with the help of the context. It is, however, possible that some of the parts of letters referred to above are carved shallow on the stone and consequently they may not have come out in the rubbing at my disposal.

... The language is Sanskrit, and with the exception of one small sentence each at the beginning and at the end and the portion showing the date and introducing the name of Dēvapāla, the record is composed in poetry. The composition is not free from errors, the glaring mistakes being the use of the word nikētana in masculine in 1. 11, and the composition of verses 7 and 8, offending against the metre. From all the above remarks it is evident that the composer of the inscription was neither a sound scholar nor a polished poet, and the engraver too has not done his work with proper care. But notwithstanding this, the record is historically very important, as will be shown after reviewing its contents.

... The orthography calls for the following remarks: (1) The sign for v denotes b as well, excepting the probable case of the use of b in labdha in 1.6 ;(2) the occasional doubling of a consonant following r, e.g. sarvva-guṇair = lōkē, 1. 9 but not in mūrtiḥ and kīrtiḥ, both in 1. 10;
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[1] A few of the errors appearing in the transcript given by Hall and not noted by Kielhorn are : कुर्वन्ती (for कुर्वती in v. 2), लिखार्या (for लिंवार्या in v. 3), -द्धोसी (for दद्दोसी in 1.8) and प्रशस्तेयं(in 1. 18).

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