North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

...The inscription also states that Dēvapāla obtained majesty (i. e. the sovereignty of Dhārā) through a boon bestowed upon him by the favour of Limbāryā, who may be taken to have been a local deity to whom he was devoted. A parallel case we have noticed is that of Naravarman who was devoted to the goddess of the name of Charchikā, who endowed him with power. And we may probably hold with Kielhorn who states that “the rulers of Dhārā adopted the phrase in imitation of a similar phrase employed by the Chaulukya kings of Aṇhilwāḍ with whose inscriptions they had reason to be familiar.” [1]

...Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, Dhārā is well-known ; and Harshapura is the modern village of Harsaudā, or Harsūd, where the inscribed stone was found. Undapura I am unable to identify for want of sufficient data in the record. [2] Kielhorn, however, states that this place is probably mentioned also in the Udayapur inscription of which he has given the date in the Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX. p. 28, No. 28 (unpublished). According to his reading it is [Uda?]pura

TEXT [3]
[Metres : Verses 1-6. 9-12 and 14 Anushṭubh ; vv. 7-8 Upajāti (both irregular).4 v. 13 Śālinī].+

[1] It may here be noted that the Parbhāvakacharita (p. 143) mentions Limbajā (i.e., Limbāryā) as the gōtradēvī or the family-deity of the king.
[2] It may, however, propose to identify the place with Uṇḍwā which is about 8 kms. west-northwest of Harsūd on the Chhōṭā-tavā, a tributary of the Narmadā and lying in Lat. 22o 6’ N.: Long. 76o 39’ E. See Ind. Atlas, Sheet No. 55B/S.E.
[3] From a rubbing, supplied to me through the courtesy of the Chief Epigraphist, at his request, by Prof.Van Name.
[4] In the fourth foot of v. 7 the third letter is required to be guru, and the error can be eradicated by reading the letter as lla, as it as it was probably intended. Verse 8 has its first and fourth feet in the Indravajrā metre whereas the second in the Vaṁśatha metre and the third in Indravaṁśā.
[5] Before this syllable there is an ornamental device which was taken by Kielhorn as a flower, but to me it appears to be rayed Sun.
[6] The anusvārā on ra is surrounded by an ornamental device resembling a petal on each of the four sides.
[7] Here, as also in some other instances, the daṇḍa is engraved so close the following letter as to appear as a mātrā.
[8] Read वोम्वुजाम्वुनगौकसः. which would offend against the metre but which has be corrected as शं वोब्जाम्वुनगौ- कस:, to suit the metre. Parts of the third of these letters appear as scored off. This difficult verses was first explained by Hall as follows: “May Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva (Ka-Ī-Īśa) – in colour resembling, severally, the waterlilly, the black bee. and the kāśa grass (kañjalka-ali-kāśa), having, respectively, for weapons, menacing utterances, a discus, and the pināka (huṁkāra-ari-pināka) ; moving, in order as enumerated, with birds, a bird, and a bull (vi-vi-gō). and whose abode is on the Jambū-bearing mountain, bestow on you prosperity (J.Am.O.Soc., Vol. VI, p. 537) Kielhorn suggested to translate the last compound as ‘whose abode is, respectively, a lotus, the water, and the mountain’ (abja-ambu-naga). Kielhorn also read the first akshara of the verse as kai, stating that the superscript line which turns ē into ai is very faint, but it is undoubtedly there. But he does not justify the reading Kaiśāḥ And in this respect the following way of solving the compound is proposed : श्र्पश्च ईशश्च एशौ ; कश्च एशौ चेति कैशः.
[9] As already noted by Kielhorn, one would expect –śatē=ṁkē here.
[10] The sign of anusvāra was originally omitted and engraved subsequently, but it is only a dot, unlike others.

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