North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF VAGADA

NO. 90 ; PLATE LXXXIX
ARTHŪṆĀ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF VIJAYARĀJA
Vikrama Year 1966

...THE stone bearing this inscription was discovered in the village of Arthūṇā, which is situated about 45 kms. southwest of Bāṅswāḍā, formerly the capital of a State but now the chief city of a district of the same name in Rājasthān. The record was very briefly noticed by D. R. Bhandarkar, in the Progress Report of the Western Circle of the Archaaeological Survey of India, ending 1909, on p, 49: [1] and subsequently it was edited by R. R. Halder, in the Epigraphia, Indica, Volume XXI (1931), pp. 50 ff., with his reading of the text, in Nāgarī (pp. 51-55) and a facsimile facing p. 52. It is edited here from the original stone and two inked impressions, one of which (taken in 1956-57) was kindly placed at my disposal by the Chief Epigraphist, and another, prepared fresh and supplied to me. by Om Prakash Sharma, the Curator of the Rājputānā Museum, Ajmer, where the stone is now deposited. The latter of these impressions shows that both the right and left borders of the stone have now suffered a little, though, fortunately, none of the letters is lost.

... The inscription, which is in a sunken panel with a border on all sides, consists of 31 lines of writing which occupies a space 46.5 cms. broad by 30.2 cms. high; but ll. 22 and 27.31 which contain one or two aksharas beyond the normal limit, measure 48 cms. in length. The left hand margin of ll. 22.25 contains three aksharas which could not be accommodated in the last line. The average size of the letters is about 6 cms. The writing is well preserved, with the exception of a few aksharas which have suffered from abrasions here and there and four of them which are entirely lost in l. 20.

...The inscription is written in Nāgarī script of the twelfth century. The initial a has begun assuming its modern form, for which see āsīt, 1. 2; and the initial i is in a transitional stage; in ll. 2, 13 and 15 its form entirely differs from that which is employed in a singular instance in iti, l. 21. Of the consonants, ch is distinguished from v in showing its loop angular; cf. vachasi, 1. 12, where both these letters appears side by side, and in chapalā-, 1. 1, it resembles its modern form; but occasionally it reverts to its older form resembling v, as in khadyōtakaiś= cha, 1. 1. Dh continues to resemble v, for which see dhvajinī, 1. 2 and vōdha, 1. 12. In two instances the form of dh resembles a bow with its string on the right; see sudhā, 1. 4 and sādhāraṇa, 1. 19; and in a singular instance in vidadhē, 1. 6, the top of its left limb shows a bend inclined to further develop itself as a horn. J also shows its transitional stage and its older and advanced forms are written side by side in rājī-janita, 1. 1. Bh also shows two forms, e.g., one in bhavya and the other in tamōbhiḥ both in l. l. The subscript r which used to be written as a complete letter with its superscript half drawn, or which is occasionally shown as a serif attached to the lower limb of a letter, as in vrata-, 1. 5, has given place to an oblique stroke attached to the middle of a letter, as in prabhūta, 1. 7.

... The language id Sanskrit and the text is in verse, with the exception of a short sentence at the beginning of 1. 1, the portion containing the date in 1. 22, a word in 1. 23 and a short sentence at the end of 1. 26. In all there are 39 verses, which are numbered. The main body of the document ends with 1. 26 (v. 30), and the next five lines (27-31) are devoted to reproduce nine stanzas from a Digambara work entitled Ātmānuśāsana [2]

... The record contains grammatical and other errors, e. g., the use of sthalau for sthalyāṁ, 1. 3, pratishṭtitaṁ for pratishṭhāpitaṁ, 1. 22, jagatau for jagatyām, 1. 23, and utkīrnnā for utkīrṇṇā, 1. 26, Verses 5 and 10 offend against the metre, and in v. 25, the second letter in the fourth foot is made short for metrical exigencies, In v. 29 we also find the use of vai for pāda-pūrti, With reference to technical execution, it may be observed that the ūrdhva-mātrās representing the dipthongs in l. 1 show beautiful flourishes, and the sign of ansusvāra on taṁ in the same line
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[1] Also see op. cit., p. 9, No. 2432. and A. S. I., A. R., 1908-9, p. 118. The inscription is also referred to in the A. R., Rājputānā Museum, 1918, p. 2.
[2] See Halder, op. cit., p. 511. n. 2.

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