North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

and also the tank near the river Ketaki—The village with these four boundaries extending to its limit, together with grass, wood and water, together with (the proceeds of) the fines, together with all produce thereof, but exclusive of the gifts previously made to gods and Brāhmaṇas, which is not to be entered by the chāṭas and bhaṭas, has been donated by a charter with devotion as a gift free from taxes.

.. So, none should cause any obstacle while he with the relatives of the family is enjoying it or allowing (others) to enjoy it. Since it has been said by great sages:—

(Here occur four verses about the importance of preserving gifts.)

.. (Line 84) Having thought over these sayings of ancient sages clever in discriminating between what is righteous and what is not, all future rulers whether of our family or others, should aspire only for acquiring the reward of religious merit for the protection (of this gift), and none should be notorious in incurring the disgrace of sin consequent on its confiscation. He who, though thus entreated, with his mind clouded by the mass of the darkness of ignor- ance, confiscates it or allows it to be confiscated through greed, will incur all the five (major) sins as well as minor sins and will experience (pangs in) the Raurava, Mahāraurava and Andhatāmisra hells. As it has been said by the holy Vyāsa :—

(Here occur two imprecatory verses.)

..(Line 90) As it is, the giver of the charter records his approval by the hand of the scribe as follows:—“What is written in this charter has been approved by Me, the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara, the illustrious Vikramādityadeva.”

.. And this has been written by me, who have been appointed by the King, (viz.) the Brāhmaṇa Lakshmīdhara Paṇḍita, son of the illustrious Paṇḍita Nāgasvāmin, with the consent of the Sāndhivigrahika. Whatever is written here—-in deficient or redundant letters— all that is authoritative. May there be happiness (and) great prosperity !

No. 24 : PLATE LXII
RĀNJALĪ STONE INSCRIPTION OF HARIPĀLADÉVA : ŚAKA YEAR 10[70]

.. THE stone bearing this inscription was discovered several years ago in a field near the Nālā-Sōpārā station of the Western Railway. It was removed to the Office of the Control of Stores of that Railway near Mahālakshmī in Bombay, where it was lying when Dr. M. G. Dikshit copied the record on it. The inscription was first edited by Dikshit in his Sources of the Mediaeval History of the Deccan (Marathi), Vol. IV, pp. 62 f., and later re-edited by him with a facsimile in the Marāṭhī Saṁshōdhana Patrikā, Vol. IX, pp. 10 f. The record has, again, been edited from the same facsimile by Dr. S. G. Tulpule in his Prāchīna Marāṭhī Korīva Lēkha, pp. 43 f. I edit the inscription here from an impression supplied by the Chief Epigraphist.

.. The stone bearing this record measures 1’6” (45.72 cm.) by 10” (25.40 cm.). It has at the top a maṅgala-kalaśa with the sun and the moon on the two sides. Below the record, there is a square measuring ten inches (25.40 cm.) on each side, which contains the usual sculpture of a woman pursued by an ass. The inscription is in a fair state of preservation, but some letters here and there have become indistinct owing to exposure to the sun and rain. Besides, the record was very carelessly written and incised. So, the reading is uncertain in several places.

..The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet and the average size of the letters is about .5” (1. 27 cm.) The following peculiarities may be noted. The akshara a appears clearly in its modern form in line 7. See apara–. K has usually a circle on the left, but it is not noticed in kṛi. See saṁalaṁkṛita, line 4. The language is Sanskrit mixed with Marathi. The usual ortho-