North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF VAGADA

ARTHŪṆĀ STONE INSCRIPTION OF CHĀMUṆḌARĀJA

instances by long ū ; see iva-, 1. 17, and iti, 11. 8 and 14. The sign of the secondary short u is occasionally attached to the right side of the letter, though generally put at its lowest extremity; cf., e.g., manyunā and muninā, respectively, both in 1.5. Of the consonants, ṇ assumes a some what advanced form, as in guṇa, 1. 15; ṇ appears both in its antique and modern forms; cf. munin=āmunā, 1. 5; the consonant b is used only once, in Balabhid, 1. 21, and bh shows as many as four varieties, viz., resembling t as in bhrānta-, resembling ru in bhaya-, and resembling s in bhujaṅga, all in 1. 1, and h, in bhava-, 1. 3. Ś, which is in a transitional stage, shows its antique form in āśisham-, 1. 8, and an advanced form in śrī, 1. 10, where it is only slightly distinguished from s, as often noted in this inscription. Occasionally we find this letter showing a combination of both these sibilants, i.e., the loop of the palatal along with the middle stroke of the dental, as in Śivāya, 1. 1.

... A characteristic feature of the writing is that a slightly vertical stroke resembling a hook is attached to the left of the top strokes of some of the letters, e.g. in the initial lines, –– a tendency which as changed their forms, e.g., chha appears as stha in 1. 44, nā as mā in 1.46, and tuṁvaka as vuṁvaka in 1. 48. This tendency appears also in some other inscription of the time, as in the Udaipur praśasti, edited above, Influence of local pronunciation is also noted; as in the word kshuṇṇa, 1. 31, ṇ is spelt with the dental nasal; the word -aṅghri in 11. 7 and 18 is written as aṁhri, and -siṁha as –sinha, 1. 8, nistṛiṁśa as nistruṁśa, 11. 15 and 32 (twice); and the word ujjvala, in 1. 52, is spelt as ujvala. The writer has also omitted two syllables in 1. 42 of the text that follows, Other errors are to be noted in the subjoined text,. Rules of sandhi have been violated in writing duḥprāpyāṁ 1. 5, āviḥkṛitā, 1. 25, vaṇiga-maṇḍalīkā, 1. 49, and sandhi is violated in the third foot of v. 87, obviously due to the metrical exigencies.

... With the exception of a short sentence paying obeisance to Śiva, in the beginning, and the portion mentioning the name of the engraver and the date in the end, the record is metrically composed, showing 87 stanzas, in all well-known metres; but, curiously enough, one of them, No. 55, is a combination of Rathōddhatā and Svāgatā. The language is fluent and the style is Gauḍī, as in any composition of the medial period and describing valorous deeds; and figures of speech are freely used, prominent among them being Ślēsha, Rūpaka, Upamā, Utprēkshā and Vyatirēka. The composition is generally free from errors; and though the historical material afforded by it is scanty, it is indeed valuable as a literary piece. The verses are not numbered.

... The orthographical peculiarities to be observed in the record are as follows : (1) The sign for v is used to denote b also, as in vaddha, 1. 1; the only exception thereof is Balabhid, 1. 21, as noted above; (2) the dental sibilant is often used for the palatal, as in sasiēkhara, 1. 2; (3) the consonant following r is mostly doubled; see kīrtti, 1. 21; and the consonant preceding this letter is occasionally doubled, as in yattra, 1. 2, and –agnihōttra, 1. 3, but not in the former of these words in 1. 48;(4) medial dipthongs or one of the components of ai and au are indicated by the pṛishṭha-mātrā, with a few exceptions as in māsē and dāpitō in 11. 48 and 47, respectively, where we find the use of the ūrdhava-mātrā; (5) the sign of anusvāra is often put throughout in place of a class-nasal, though wrongly at the end of the second and fourth foot of a verse; and (6) the use of the kāka-pada sign, to denote that the word is continued in the next line, at the end of 11. 11 and 166 and perhaps at the end of 1. 37 also. [1] A number of local words, mostly of ‘homely kind’, are also used in the business part of the inscription, while enumerating the articles of donations made.

... The inscription is a praśasti, a laudatory account of a line of kings who belonged to the subordinate Paramāra house ruling over the province of Sthālī or Vāgaḍa, comprising mostly the modern districts of Bāṅswāḍā and Ḍūṅgarpur, in Rājasthān. That it is a praśasti is clearly stated in v. 86, and again in v. 87 below; and its importance lies in that it mentioned the names of the line of kings from the earliest to Chāmuṇḍarāja, in whose reign it was composed and set up. Its immediate object is to record the foundation of a temple of Śiva under the name of
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[1] All these signs being not clear enough in his impression. Barnett took them to be daṇḍas, See p. 291. n. 7. Curiously enough, an anusvāra and a class-nasal are occasionally found even side by side, e.g., in prachaṇḍa-dōr-daṁḍa in 1. 10 and chintā chiṁtā- in 1. 43.

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