North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

THREE SERPENTINE STONE INSCRIPTIONS FROM MĀLWĀ

...known as Varṇanāga-kṛipāṇikā, which is, as the expression indicates, a scimitar or a dagger formed by (the combination) of the letters and a snake. The head of the snake is represented by the broad barbed blade of the dagger, and its coiled body, after forming a sort of hilt of the dagger, curls up, making a serpentine loop representing a tail. In the head of the dagger are engraved the fourteen vowels from a to au, and below in its body, the letters ha, ya, va, ra and la. The portion below is divided into 25 squares, arranged obliquely, and in each of them is to be seen an akshara from ka to ma, known as sparśas, in their classes, five in each line. The portion still below is shaped as a triangle ; and in its right arm, which has four square compartments, are engraved the aksharas śa, sha, sa and ha, one in each square, from top to bottom. The base is also divided in four columns, each of which shows the jihvāmūlīya, the upadhmānīya, the anusvāra and the visarga, respectively from left to the right ; and in the left-hand side of the triangle are engraved the aksharas ru, yu and u, in columns two to four. The syllable which was engraved in the first of these columns has altogether disappeared. The object of engraving these three aksharas is not known to me. [1] In the end we find the number 15 which gives the total.

...In the loop representing the tail of the snake are engraved the sup and tiṅ terminations as they are technically known. It is divided into 39 compartments, 21 of which are occupied by the noun terminations of the seven classes (three for each of the numbers, i.e., singular, dual and plural), and the remaining 18 are the verbal inflexions of the two (parasmai and ātmanē-) padas. 9 for each of them, respectively, for the three numbers known as the prathama (third), madhyama (second) and the uttama (first) person.

TEXT [2]
[ Metres : Verses 79-84 Śārdūlavikrīḍita ; vv. 85-87 Anushṭubh ].

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[1] In the impressions before Sastri all the letters in this arm appear to have been missing or faintly come out, and instead of the three as we have read, he surmises them to have been ksha, tra, jña and ōm. But in the impression before me the three letters as I read are very clear and I have compared them with the originals also. It is. however, not known why the letters ya, ra, la and va are omitted, though Sastri has also suggested that they may have been contained in the left arm. But there is no for them.
[2] From the original stone and impressions.
[3] The first two letters lost here may conjecturally be restored as यन्मा.
[4] The anusvāra is ornamentally treated, marked as a lotus with petals.
[5] The sign of visarga is visible on the stone but has not come out in the impressions.
[6] These three aksharas, which have been conjecturally restored by Sastri, are distinct on the original.
[7] These two letters are lost and the restoration is only conjectural.
[8] In this and the next line the last letters which are in the brackets are thin and in parts, and the restoration is certain.
[9] Read र्ल्लोना. A kāka-pada sign at the end of the line shows that the word is continued in the next line.
[10] On some of the letters in this line there are signs of abrasions and not of anusvāra as actually taken by Sastri. For example, he read an anusvāra on the second akshara. Here also the line has a kāka-pada sign in the end and it is marked so close to the preceding akshara as to appear as a mātrā of a.

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