North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF VAGADA

No. 87; PLATE LXXXVII –B
ARTHŪṆĀ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF CHĀMUṆḌARĀJA
[Vikrama] Year 1159

... THE stone which bears this inscription was discovered in 1914-15 by R. B. Gaurishankar H. Ojha, in a dilapidated Jaina temple at Arthūṇā in the Bāṅswāḍā District of Rājasthān, and he removed it to the Rājputānā Museum, Ajmer.[12] where it is now preserved. Ojha also noticed the record very briefly in the Annual Report of the Museum, for the year, on p. 2 It is edited here for the first time from the original stone and an impression which I owe to the present Curator of the Museum.

... The inscription consists of 16 lines. The writing covers a space about 32.5 cms. broad by 19 cms. high. A considerable portion of it is unfortunately damaged and a portion incised with about a dozen of letters in [11] . 6-14, on the proper right side, is almost completely lost. On the proper left side also the some has peeled off or abraded so as to lose 2 or 3 letters in each of the lines. The height of the individual letters is about .7 cms.
__________________________________________

[1] The lacunae may be filled in by -कार्यपरो मान्यो निस्यं स-,, of which the first five letters are in traces. But this would not explain the use of क्रमात्‌.
[2] The verticals of the first letter of the name are joined by a horizontal stroke as those of dhā, and the sign of anusvāra on the second is faintly visible, The missing aksharas may have mentioned something about the king.
[3] Some of these akshara are partly visible but nothing can be made out of them.
[4] The portion mentioning the first two figure of the date is lost but these two figures can be restored as 11 with the help of those appearing in the end. Thus the year is 1159.
[5] Of the whole quarter which is lost here, it cannot be said how many akshara were in this and in the preceding line which also shows 4 or 5 aksharas struck off by horizontal lines.
[6] The mātrā of the first letter in the brackets appears to have been first wrongly incised and later on struck off by two horizontal strokes ––– one on the vertical and the other on the curve above; and the lowest extremity of the vertical stroke ending ya is curved to the right instead of to the left. See the same letter in 1. 5 above.
[7] This akshara is more like जो than तो; and unfortunately. the second akshara of a word showing the relationship is lost. The reading may have been श्र्पनुजो (?)
[8] The reading is certain except that the pṛishṭha-mātrā taken here as of vē may have been that of ā attached to the preceding letter. This broken part, however, does not give any sense.
[9] The akshara in the brackets are conjecturally restored. The following five aksharas that are lost are apparently meant to describe the lady,
[10] This expression is metrically faulty; read कृत्यचारित्र-.
[11] The rest of the inscription is all broken.
[12] It was acquired for the Museum on 2-7-1931.

..............CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM
VOL.VII .....................................................................PLATE LXXXVIII
A-ARTHUNA STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF CHAMUNDARAJA: (VIKRAMA) YEAR 1159

Home Page