North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF VAGADA

No. 85 ; PLATE LXXXV
ARTHŪṆĀ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF CHĀMUṆḌARĀJA
[Vikrama] Year 1137

...THE inscription edited here for the first time was discovered by the late Paṇḍit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha, in an old temple at the village of Arthūṇā in the former Bāṅswāḍā State of Rājasthān, in 1931. Pt. Ojha acquired the stone for the Rājputānā Museum, Ajmer, where it is now exhibited. He very briefly noticed the historical information contained in the record, in the Annual Report of the Museum, for 1914-15, on page 2. The contents of the inscription are also summarily mentioned in the Progress Report of the Arch. Survey of India, W. C., for the same year, on page 35, No. 2. But the record remained un-edited so far. It is edited here from the original stone and an inked impression which was kindly supplied to me, at my request, by Shri. Om Prakash Sharma, the Curator of the Museum.

... The record is inscribed on a stone slab, measuring 41.91 cms. high by 35.56 cms. broad. It consists of 34 lines of writing, covering a space 39 cms. high by 32 cms. broad. The letters are carefully formed and deeply engraved; but unfortunately the stone has suffered in a most deplorable manner; a part of it on the left and also at the bottom is lost. Only the first seven lines are complete; and below, from the eights line, the stone, particularly on the lower proper right side, has also a crack which cuts across lines 8-32 on the left and runs transversely, broadening all the way down to lines 27-34 in the middle, and of lines 21-30 in the end, making the size of the slab very irregular; for whereas the length of the preserved portion in 1. 8 is 24 cms., it is only about 8 cms. in the last line. Besides this, there are some abrasions in the portion that is luckily preserved, and we have occasionally to resort to guesses, as several letters here and there are partly damaged. However, a patient examination of the impression and also the original has helped me to prepare the subjoined transcript of the record, enabling us to form a general idea of its contents.

...The inscription is engraved in Nāgarī characters of the 12th century, bearing resemblance to those of the records of the time, and its palaeography shares almost the same peculiarities as of them. Attention, however, may be drawn to the forms of the initial a an asti, 1. 3, and atha, 1. 5; of the initial i appearing in its archaic form as in iva- and iti, both in 1.6; of k, which is often devoid of its loop on the left, as in kusuma, 1. 1; of ḍ which appears as a combination
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[1] As noted by Barnett. this compound is irregular and the error can be removed by changing the position of the two words.
[2] The reading is certain and not Sa(Śa)kā’ as taken by Barnett on the basis of the indifferent impression and therefore he had also to remark that the use of the word Śaka here is curious. See p. 286.n. 2
[3] Here Sandhi is not observed for metrical exigencies,
[4] The preceding letters are perhaps to show the word vijñāninā. Barnett could not read the name of the engraver and some more letters and stated that twelve letters were almost illegible in the impression before him. He also wrote that “the transcript of Gopal Lal adds mahā-śrī-“. The impression before me shows all these letters clearly.
[5] The reading of this figure is absolutely certain in the impression and also on the original stone. About incorrectly reading it as 3 from an indifferent impression, see my remarks above in the edition of the inscription.

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