North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

the suggestion of Sastri, though we cannot be absolutely certain about it. This is why Dr.D. C. Sircar, while publishing Sastri’s article, remarked that it is likely that the two fragments from the beginning and end of two different inscription. [1]

...Here we may give a general idea of the record in the upper story and consider its relation with the one number review. The inscription on the upper story of the temple is about 43 cms. broad by 55 cms. high ; and the surface of the stone being highly worn out, it cannot be completely read. But what one can make out from the fragmentary reading of it is that it contains 19 stanzas, of which the first sixteen are devoted to the eulogy of Śiva and the description of the Arbuda mountain. This account is followed, as we find in a number of the Paramāra inscriptions, by an allusion to the sacrificial offering of the sage Vasishṭha and the creation of a warrior from his fire-pit. The portion that follows is lost ; it appears to have contained the genealogy of the Paramāra rulers bringing it down to Udayāditya, whose name appears in the present inscription. Viewing this all, it appears possible, though not certain, that the present inscription was in continuation of the one on the upper story, and some time subsequently the two fragments were separated. This consideration alone appears to justify the fact that the verses in the present inscription are numbered from 79 onwards.

...Of the three stanzas in the Anushṭubh metre which are incised in 11. 23-28 and below the alphabet on the left hand side, the first dedicates the Varṇa-nāgakṛipāṇikā, i.e., the alphabetical snake-scimitar, to Udayāditya ; and the second stanza states that this sword of kings Udayāditya and Naravarman, the worshippers of Śiva, was ready equally for the protection of the (four) Varṇas (classes of society) and of the Varṇas (alphabet), (by encouraging learning), with a pun on the word Varṇa. The third and the last of these stanzas purports to state that this serpentine sword of king Udayāditya, intended for the protection of letters (learning) and social classes has been set up as a badge for the poets and kings (rulers). It also says that the string of (poetic) gems was composed by “the friend of the talented poets’’ (sukavibandhunā), which, as Sastri rightly pointed out, presumably refers to king Naravarman himself, who appears to have composed the praśasti. [2] Thus the drift of all these three verses taken together goes to show, as already indicated by Sastri, that the praśasti was incised by Naravarman himself, during his reign, to commemorate the restoration of a temple of Śiva (the Mahākāla temple itself where the stone was found), [3] and also that he associated his father’s name with his own as an expression of honour and filial love. The case appears analogous to that of the Nagpur Museum stone inscription which is Naravarman’s own composition and which contains as many as twenty-one verses to eulogise his brother Lakshmadēva for whom he had deep devotion [4] .

...Immediately following the praśasti and in 11. 18-19 are engraved the akshara of the Nāgarī alphabet, class-wise, each group being followed by a numerical indication showing the number of aksharas in it. Thus the number 14 in 1. 18 indicates the vowels from a to au, then the number 2 the anusvāra and visarga, and following it, again the number 2 is engraved consonants from ka to ha, indicating their total number 51, at the end. The sub-total is also indicated just after each of the groups. Line 20 of the inscription gives the long vowels ā, ī, ū, ṛī, and lṛī, and following these, we find (in 11. 20-22) the well-known Māhēśvara-sūtras. The total number of letters in them, which is 47, is given at the end, and the sub-total of each group is also mentioned along with it. This alphabetical arrangement is followed by the three stanzas (11. 23-28), as already discussed above.

...On the right side of where the Māhēśvara-sūtras end, we find the beginning of the bandha
_________________

[1] See Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXI, p. 25, n. 3. In my personal examination on the spot I was convinced that Sastri is correct in his remarked.
[2] Agreeing with Sastri and also with Lele who expressed the same opinion while noticing the alphabeticalcum-grammatical chart found at Dhār (the next one), I hesitate to agree with Dr. Sircar who suggests that the verses were composed by the talented poet Bandhu (su-kavi-bandhunā) who was probably a protégé of Naravarman, for Sircar himself has also felt the difficulty that the poet Bandhu would not indulge in calling himself “a talented poet’’. See Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXI, p. 26, n. In our view as expressed here. Sircar’s justification of calling Naravarman a king (mahībhuj) by taking him a governor of a district of his father’s kingdom, does not arise.
[3] The time of the actual construction of the temple of this jyōtirliṅga being unknown. this view is ex- pressed here.
[4] See No. 33, vv. 34-54.

Home Page