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 449

342
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. IX
No. 53.–ARANG COPPER-PLATE OF BHIMASENA II.
GUPTA-SAMVAT 282.
BY HIBA Lal, B.A.; NAGPUR. This copper-plate was found by me with Sri Krishṇa Målguzâr of Ârang on my visit to that place on the 31st May 1908. Árang is 22 miles east of Raipur, the headquarters of the Chhattisgarh Division in the Central Provinces. It contains several ancient remains and it was there that another plate in box-headed characters belonging to Maha-Jayadeva was found. There is also another mutilated inscription at the place on a stone in characters like those in which the inscriptions of Sirpur, which is 15 miles from Arang, are engraved. The details as to the exact find-spot of our inscription are not available, as Sri Krish pa told me that it was found long ago by one of his ancestors, and as no Pandits could read it, it was stowed away, so that being ont of sight, it got out of mind. He, however, assured me he had heard from his ancestors that it was dug up in Arang itself and that it was not brought from any other place. There is only one plate with an uncat ring passing through a round hole, its ends being soldered to a round soal. The plate measures 10 "x4" and has irregular edges and an uneven surface, partly corroded. In spite of this, the letters are all visible except two or three (11. 6 and 11) which have been much worry out and arb difficult to decipher. The seal is a little brittlish and has in basrelievo a lion in a sitting posture as the family crest, beneath wbich are inscribed in raised letters Sri-mahárája-Bhimasénasya.
The inscription contains 13 lines, 9 on the obverse and 4 on the reverse side. The average size of letters is ". The characters belong to the Northern class of alphabets of the type, which, according to Dr. Fleet, "may be called the standard alphabet, with northern characteristics, of Central India from towards the end of the 5th to the middle of the 6th century A. D."4 There are also numerical symbols for 200, 80, 2, 10 and 8, the last being doubtful. The language of the record is Sanskrit prose except the imprecatory verse in 11. 11 and 12. In respect of orthography, we have to notice the use of the dental nasal instead of the anusvára before s in vansyaih (1. 10) and instead of the class nasal before a gattural in pidán-kuryát (in the same line). Letters with a répha have been mostly doubled. The vowel sign for i occurs in sri (1.2) and á is sometimes denoted by a short vertical stroke after the consonant to which it is joined, at other times by & top curve, especially when combined with sa or pa (11, 2, 3, 5, 10 and 12). Final forms of m occur in II. 6, 7 and ll.
The object of the inscription is to record the grant of a village named Vaţapallik& in the district of Donde by the Maharaja Bhimasena II. to two Brahmans Harisvâmin and Bappasvamin, both of the Bharadvâja-gôtra and students of the Rigveda. The charter was issued from the Suvarnnanadi (river), where apparently the donor had gone to bathe on some festival. The genealogy of Bhimasena is given for six generations, thus:-Bhimasena (II.), son of Dayitavarmman (II.), son of Bhimasena (I.), son of Vibhishana, son of Dayita (I.), son of Sura; but it is not clear to which particular dynasty they belonged. They are stated to have been born of a family celebrated for its dignity like that of royal ascetics (rajarshitulyakula). From this it
Cunningham's Reporta, Vol. XVII. p. 20 et seq.
Gupta Inscriptions, p. 191. * Cunningham'. Reporta, Vol. XVII. p. 23 et seq. • Gupta Imeriptions, p. 117.
* This probably refers to the Gupta fainily. In the Udayagiri cave inscription (vide Gupta Inscriptions, p. 85) Chandragupta II. is called "rajadhirdjarski," which implies that he combined in him both regal and religious qualifications, an ideal to which the feudatory chiefs would be prone to liken their own families. In reference to his sovereign lord, Bhimasena could not arrogate the title of rajarshi to his family and that seenis to be the reason why he inserts the word tulya (like). For similar resus it appears their northern feudatories called themselves Pariordjaka, which means 'a religious wetlicaut.'