North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

JAINĀḌ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF JAGADDEVA

No. 29 ; PLATE XXXII
JAINĀḌ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF JAGADDĒVA
( Undated)

...THE stone which bears this inscription was found lying loose on the floor of the maṇḍapa attached to a temple in the village of Jaināḍ, situated about 10 kms. north-east of Ādilābād, the headquarters of a district in the former Hyderabad State (now Āndhra Pradesh). The discovery of its was first announced in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Department of the Nizam’s Dominions, 1925-26, and an introductory note on it with a transcript prepared by C.R. Krishnamacharlu and a photo-lithograph were published subsequently in the Annual Report of the above-mentioned department for 1927-28, pp. 23-4 (Appendix B) and Plate G. It was next edited by Dr. D. C. Ganguly, from an ink-impression supplied to him, with a translation, in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXII (1933), pp. 54 ff. but without a facsimile. It is edited here from a fresh impression which I owe to the kindness of Dr. R. Subrahmanyam, the Superintending Archaeologist of the South-Eastern Circle of the Archaeological Survey of India and now a Professer in the Andhra University.

...The inscribed slab apparently seems to have been originally built in a part of the temple in which it is was found detached. The plate published in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Department referred to above makes it obvious that then too the stone had suffered considerably, showing both its vertical borders irregularly flaked away, taking with it one akshara at the beginning and as many as sixteen at the beginning of the last line, besides having some ken into two pieces by a large crack cutting it vertically in the middle of all the lines so as to damage or take away one akshara in each of them. [5] Fortunately, these letters are legible in the photo-lithograph published in the Annual Report of the department referred to above.

...The inscribed surface which measures about 47 cms. broad by 40.45 cms. high and contains 28 lines of equal length, is extremely abraded, wholly or partly damaging and rendering illegible one or two aksharas here and there and particularly in the last line thereof. However, with the exception of one or two aksharas in 11. 13, 21 and 24 and some more in 11. 25-26 and 28, where the reading is doubtful owing partly due to the peeling off of the surface of the stone and also partly to the slovenliness on the part of the engraver, the text can be deciphered with confidence, though in the subjoined transcript, occasionally I had also to compare the facsimile published in the Annual Report of the department referred to above.

The average height of the letters is about 1 cm. The characters are Nāgarī of the 11th
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[1] Mirashi read पुण्या[धारं] and corrected it to -धारो (see op. cit., p. 184. n. 2). but the consonant of the third of these aksharas is clearly g with a vertical stroke ending in a triangle : cf. its form also in grāma- that follows.
[2] As n. 7 on the preceding page.
[3] One akshara is illegible here. The editor of Ep. Ind. remarks that “the text from श्र्पत्र देवाय to हर्त्तुमिच्छति seems also to be in verse.” The reading of the first eight aksharas of 1. 8. is uncertain.
[4] For the five great sins see Manusmṛiti. XI. 54.
[5] I am obliged to Dr. Subrahmanyam who informed me that the two pieces are still at Jaināḍ in a Sun- temple known after the name of Nārāyaṇa, and it appears to be the same temple where the stone was originally found.

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