Epigraphia Indica Vol 09

SR No.: 032563
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch, Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1907
Total Pages: 498
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 28 MB

Page 412

No. 49.] NARAYANPAL STONE INSCRIPTION OF GUNDA MAHADEVI.
No. 49.-NARAYANPAL STONE INSCRIPTION OF GUNDA MAHADEVI. THE SAKA YEAR 1033.
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BY HIRA LAL, B.A., M.R.A.S., NAGPUR.
Narayanpal is a village 23 miles north-west of Jagdalpur, the capital of the Bastar fendatory state attached to the Chhattisgarh Division of the Central Provinces. It is situated on the right bank of the " splendidly picturesque " Indravati, one of those minor rivers of India than which none is more interesting. It traverses the most untrodden regions of the peninsula. Here in the deepest recesses of the wild forests which cover the Mardian hills, is the home of the Gônd races-one of the aboriginal Dravidian peoples, whose origin is indistinct; a people who still erect rudé stone monuments and use stone implements, unwitting of the procession of the centuries and the advance of civilization to their borders." And yet the very place which has today all the signs of a primeval forest, may a thousand years back have compared favourably with any of the civilized provinces of those times. At least such seems to be the irresistible conclusion from the discovery of the antiquarian remains left by the forgotten Nagavamál kings of that little known state. Narayanpâl is one of those places which enjoyed celebrity in their times, a place to which "people of various countries resorted," and which instead of having a long row of wooden peg gods, which now adorn the village turf, possessed the temple of Narayana, "the basket of the gems of knowledge" which no doubt the residents duly picked up. The Indravati was to Bastar what the Narmada has been to India, the separating boundary between the Aryan and the Dravidian peoples. It is therefore no surprise to find all the inscriptions to the north of the Indråvati written in Nâgarî characters, while all to the south are written in Telugu. It appears that the Nâgavamsi kings, though ruling on both sides of the Indravati, had fixed that river as the ethnic or at least the linguistic boundary for the convenience of the Aryan and the Dravidian peoples under their sway. Our inscription being found in Narayanpâl on the north bank of the river is therefore in Sanskrit characters. Its discovery is due to the efforts of Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, B.A., who kindly sent me five impressions. Another impression has since been prepared by Mr. Venkoba Rao of the Madras Archæological Survey. I have made use of all these materials for my edition. The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, standing near the temple of Nârâyapa, to which it belongs. In this temple there is still an exquisite image of Narayana, 2' high. Above the ground the slab measures 7' 4" x 2' 3", and the writing covers a space 5' 9" x 2' 2", including the imprecatory figures and the additions to be referred to presently, but leaving out the top Sri maha. The original inscription apparently contained only 35 lines, beginning with Svasti sahasra-phanamani and ending with mamgala maha-éri, underneath which the usual imprecatory figures of a cow and a calf, the dagger and shield, the sun and moon and the Siva linga, the meanings of which I have elsewhere explained, were carved. The additional 11 lines, marked (a), (b), (c) and (d) by me, appear to be later additions, and are either interpolations or were inserted when the ownership of the land changed hands either by succession or otherwise. They generally give the names of persons to whom the land was apparently transferred. The lines marked (a), (b), (c) have been inserted in the blank spaces between or on the sides of the imprecatory figures. Under all these a straight line has been drawn, and the four lines marked (d) have been inserted. These give the name of a queen different from the donor of the inscription proper. This may have been done when the land changed hands after the death of the original donor, when, in the ordinary course, the successor of the donor would be shown as the transferor or grantor.
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1 Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. I. (New Edition, 1907), page 44. 2 Above, pp. 164 and 175.