Epigraphia Indica Vol 24

SR No.: 032578
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1937
Total Pages: 472
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 298

No. 33.]
ALLAHABAD MUNICIPAL MUSEUM YUPA INSCRIPTION.
247
Symbols for all the numerals from 1 to 9 appear in the record. They are similar to those found in the Näsik and Kushana inscriptions of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.
As regards the date, it is clear from 1. 7 that the record was inscribed in the 23rd regnal year of a certain king. But as his name is not preserved in the extant part of the inscription, we cannot utilise this information for determining its date. Paleographical evidence therefore affords the only clue; it points to the early part of the 2nd century A.D. as the probable date of the record, as shown already above.
Though the inscription is very fragmentary, its main purpose can be ascertained fairly satisfactorily. It divides itself into three parts, part A consisting of ll. 1-7, Part B of 11. 8-11, and part C of 11. 12-16. Part A commemorates the erection of as many as seven yūpas in connection with the performance of seven Söma sacrifices, technically known as Sapta-Soma-sanstha. The sacrificer was almost certainly Sivadatta, who was a very trusted minister of a certain king, whose name has been lost. That he performed the various sacrifices comprised in the group of seven Soma sacrifices becomes clear from the fact that only seven sacrifices are mentioned, and that to judge from the wording in 11. 3 and 5—they have been counted from Agnishtöma. Line 5 further shows that the 5th sacrifice in the series was Vājapēya. Such actually is the case with the sacrifices in Sapta-Soma-samstha. For the sacrifices included in this group are Agnishtöma, Atyagnishtöma, Ulthya, Shodasin, Vājapëya, Atirātra and Aptoryāma, and they are to be performed in the stated order.
In the Vedic age the Söma sacrifice was very common and its most popular form was Agnishfoma, so called because the last of its twelve chants was called Agnishtöma-sāman. The other six sacrifices included in the Sapta-Söma-samsthā, enumerated in the preceding paragraph, differ from Agnishtöma only in minor details. This group of seven Sõma sacrifices seems to have been very popular when the Vedic religion was in ascendancy, for one Dharmasūtra writer has elevated them to the status of the samskāras.' It is clear that the idea was that these sacrifices should be performed by every householder as regularly as the sacraments like the u panayana and antyēsht. As a matter of fact we sometimes find even the Gțihya sacrifices, which were very numerous, being artificially grouped into a sapta-pākayajña-samsthā on the analogy of the sapta-Somayajñasamstha. This would show how great was the importance that was attached to the seven Soma sacrifices of this group. It is, however, interesting to note that the present is the first case of our having discovered any yüpa referring to their performance. The Bijayagadh yāpa and the yūpas of king Mülavarman of Borneo do not mention the name of the sacrifice in connection with which they were erected. The Isäpur yüpa commemorates the celebration of a Dvādaśa-rātra sacrifice, and the Vändsä yüpa of the Shashţi-rülra, as would appear from the preliminary note published about its inscription by Mr. Haldar. Each of the three Badvā yüpa inscriptions that have so far been published, refers to the Tritātra sacrifice and another from the place, which is published below, commemorates an Aptoryāma sacrifice. The present record is therefore the first one published so far that refers to the celebration of all the seven sacrifices included in the famous Sapta-Somayajña-sansthā.
1 Kätyāyana-Srautasútra, X, 9, 27. In the enumeration of these sacrifices as given in Gautama-Dharmasutra, U kthya, Alyagnishfoma, Shodasin and Atiratra occupy the 2nd, 6th, 3rd and 4th position respectively. * Gautama-Dharmasutra.
Baudhayana-Grihyasútra, 1, 1, 1. * [In one of the inscriptions of Mülavarman, Bahubuvarņaka has been taken by Kern as a synonym of Banuhiranya, a Soma sacrifice.-Ed.)
• Ind. Ant., 1929, p. 53. [The sacrifice mentioned in this record is Bka-shashti-ratra.--Ed.]