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No. 24.]
SOME IMAGE INSCRIPTIONS FROM EAST BENGAL
359
compare the letters of the present inscription, as well as those of the two plates of Dēva-Khadga, with the letters of the Nidhanpur plates of Bhaskaravarman, the Aphsad and the Shahpur inscriptions of Aditya-sēna-dēva, the Deobarnark inscription of Jivita-gupta, the Banskhera and Madhuban plates of Harsha, without coming to the conclusion that a span of about a hundred years covers them all. A comparison of the characters of the Khadga inscriptions with those of the earliest known inscriptions of the Pāla kings leaves no doubt that the former must be considerably prior to the latter, possibly by about a century.
There is nothing special to note in the orthography, except the doubling of after in Sarvvāpi. The use of only one symbol for b and v is almost the rule in Eastern Indian inscriptions, as in the modern Bengali language.
The language is correct Sanskrit verse. The inscription is in three lines on three sections ; the first two lines run over all the three sections, while the third line is incised only on the middle one.
I edit the inscription from rubbings and photographs in my possession.
TEXT. 1 [fefre] afet unght A zufacturer f STEW: [1]
___ तदात्मजो दानप2 fa: gaiuttgaut fafaatfiek: [*] Tree Etat
महिषी श्रीप्रभावती [*] स(श)ोणीप्रतिमा
Haar SAETATUT I **
TRANSLATION May success attend ! May welfare accrue! There was an overlord of kings, Khadgödyama by name. His son (became known) on earth (as) Jāta-Khadga. His powerful and benevolent son Dēva-Khadga was (like) a sword, a conqueror of all foes. Prabhävati, the queen-consort of this king, out of reverence for Sarvvapi, covered her image with gold.
5. THE DACCA CHANDI IMAGE INSCRIPTION OF THE 3RD YEAR OF
LAKSHMANA-SENA-DĒVA. The inscription is on the pedestal of an image of Chandi, discovered about four decades ago in the ruins of Rāmpal, the site of Sri Vikramapura, the capital of the Senas referred to in their land grants, in the pargana that still goes by the same name, included at present in the Dacca and Faridpur districts. It is at present worshipped in a small temple situated in the Dalbāzār quarter of Dacca on the Farashganj Road, a little to the east of the Northbrook Hall. The late Babu Baikunthanāth Sen, Deputy-Inspector of Schools, of Sonārang, District Dacca, was an enthusiastic collector of images, quite a crop of which used to turn up every year in the course of casual excavations in and around Råmpal. These, on discovery, were usually put under a tree by & roadside to receive the chance worship of the passers-by. Sometimes they were put to altogether unholy uses and sometimes consigned again to neglect and oblivion. It does great credit to Baikuntha Babu that he alone, amidst the general callousness of his countrymen, was alive to the artistic and archeological merit of these relics of the past, and not a few of them owe their safe preservation to his labour. Many pieces of his collection are, it is gratifying to note, now in the Dacca Museum. This inscribed image of Chandi was one of Baikuntha Babu's finds, and he must have presented it to the founder of the temple in which it at present lies.
1 Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, p. 65.
* Expressed by a symbol.
| SR No. | 032571 |
| Book Title | Epigraphia Indica Vol 17 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | F W Thomas, H Krishna Sastri |
| Publisher | Archaeological Survey of India |
| Publication Year | 1923 |
| Total Pages | 426 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 16 MB |