North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF VAGADA

No. 88, PLATE LXXXVIII-A
ARTHŪṆĀ STONE INSSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF CHĀMUṆḌARĀJA
(Year probably lost )

...THE stone-slab bearing this inscription was discovered in 1908-09, by G.H. Ojha in dilapidated temple in the village Arthūṇā in the Bāṅswāḍā District of Rājasthān and removed to the Rājputānā Museum, Ajmer. The inscription is referred to in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for the same year on p. 49, but it remained untranscribed so far. It is edited here for the first time from my own transcript from an impression provided to me, at my own request, by Shri S.N. Sinha, Architectural Superintendent at Ajmer, and also from my personal examination of the original.

...The record in incised on a sunken panel of a slate stone with a broad border, the vertical sides of which are fashioned like pilasters and the top shows conical shape bearing geometrical designs, the whole appearing as a miniature temple. It has lost a few lines at the bottom. The preserved portion, which is marked by a boundary-line on both the vertical sides, measures 31.5 cms. broad by 29.5 cms. high, and contains 32 lines, 24 of which are complete, the following 6 have lost 1 to 7 or more aksharas due to an oblique break in the lower proper left corner of the stone, and the last two lines show the letters only in their upper parts. The size of the letters is about 8 mms. in the first ten lines, but is slightly reduced onwards in order to accommodate the remaining matter in the space left, in which they are not only occasionally deformed but also crisped, making the task of the decipherer indeed difficult, For it is often hard to distinguish between s and m, t and n, m and y, n and v, and bh and l and the like. A number of the aksharas have also suffered badly due to exposure to weather and also by abrasions so as to exhaust the patience of the decipherer. However, with patience I succeeded in making out a major portion of the writing which enabled me to form a general idea of its contents.

... The alphabet is Nāgarī of the 10-11th centuries A.C. The signs of mātrās and anusvāras on the letters in the first line have ornamental additions. As to the individual letters, the slightly varying forms of the initial i can be seen in ittha- and iti, both in 1. 3; the medial long ū is engraved as a subscript t, as in pūshā-, 1.2; the letter k loses its loop when it is the first member of a conjunct or when it has a mātrā below, cf. kshitau, 1. 8, and laṁkṛita,1. 10; the subscripts chh and th have identical forms, for example in sthita-, 1. 5 and –chchhēda, I. 11 ; ṇṇ is incised as ll and gg as gn, as in –pūrṇṇa, 1. 7, and svargga, 1. 9, respectively; unlike in the preceding inscription, dh is devoid of its horn on the left limb and the verticals off dhā are joined in the middle by a stroke, e.g., in nidhāna-, 1. 9; bh is written in its antique form, as in -bhṛit, 1. 2; and finally, y is devoid of its vertical in the end, e.g., in nitya-, 1. 1.

...The language of the record is Sanskrit; and, with the exception of a short sentence paying homage to Śiva in the beginning, it is in verse. The extant portion of it contains 32 stanzas and a portion of the next one. All the stanzas are numbered. With reference to the orthography, we see the use of v to denote b as well ; the occasional use of the dental for the palatal sibilant; the use of the pṛishṭha-mātrā excepting in a very few instances, and of the sign of anusvāra doing the duty off a nasal. The word pushpa, which occurs three times in the record, in 11. 3, 11 and 22, has its second consonant written as ph; [1] and nistriṁśa in 1. 7 is spelt as nistruṁśa and dushkṛita in 1. 22, as duḥkṛta.

...The inscription refers itself to the illustrious ruler Chāmuṇḍarāja, the son and successor of Maṇḍanadēva, and states that during the reign of the former, a temple in honour of Śiva (Harīśvara) was built by Hari, one of the six grand-sons of s goldsmith named Dōhaḍa, a resident of the fort of Chitrakūṭa in Mēdapāṭa. The date is probably lost in the portion which is
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[1] The statement about 1. 3 is rather somewhat doubtful.

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