Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 249

179 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIII It is interesting in this connection to note that another stone pillar inscription of the middle of the fifth century A.D., discovered in the Bhumara region of Central India, refers to the setting up of a bala-yashi in the following words : sva-puny-āpyāyan-ārtham yasah-kirtti-pravardhamanagottra-failikā bala yashti[h*) pratishthäpitā Varga-grāmikēna. This was a memorial pillar apparently raised in honour of several dead relations of a grāmika (headman of a village) named Varga and that is why the bala-yashţi appears to be described as a göttra-failika,' a family stone'. There is absolutely no indication in the inscription that it could have been a boundary-pillar of any kind.
The meaning of the expression bala-yashţi is not clear. The Mëdinikosha recognises the word bala in the adjectival sense of bala-yukta, strong, stout', and this is suitable in the present context. Bala-yashţi may thus indicate a strong or stout (i.e. everlasting) pillar. Even if bala is taken in its ordinary sense of strength, bala-yashti would offer the same meaning in a compound expression. It is difficult to say whether such memorial pillars were popularly and conventionally known to have been 'Balarama's yashti or pillar' just as Asöka's Delhi-Swalik pillar is called Bhimasēna's lāt or lath (from yashţi or lashti meaning a pillar') ?
In this connection, reference may be made to a late pillar inscription from the former Rewa State, now preserved in the Allahabad Municipal Museum. It reads as follows: 1 Siddham: [l*) Samvat 1[4J17 samayē Jēshța -vadi 13 Vuddhā Maha2 rājādhirāja-sri-Vallaladēva-rājyë ato 3 Näyakapālash] tasya varsē(sē) su-putra-Mah[7]rāja-nämä 4 pratyutpannaḥ | tad-abhāgyāt-paramēsvara-vaikūlyät=886 trbhyā[m] saha para-lõk-antaritaḥ tad-artham gätra6 m-akārshit | a-chandra-bhānū yavat=tāvat=tishţhatv-idam(dam) | 7 Bhamina Sõmaka tatha Chöllő] Sahadēva | kpitaṁ gatram(tram)!
This inscription refers to a memorial pillar raised by some persons in the memory of a dead man named Maharaja whose two wives appear to have committed Sati, on Wednesday, Jyështhavadi 13, V.8. 1417 (May 13, 1360 A.D.) during the rājya or reign of Maharajadhiraja Vallâladēva, as a gatra. The word gätra (occurring twice in the record in lines 5 and 7) in the sense of a pillar is unintelligible. It, however, appears to be a mistake or modification of the word götra which may be a contraction of what is called götra-failika in the Rewa inscription of the Gupta period, to which reference has been made above. The pillar in question may be regarded as a family stone' since it was raised in memory of three persons (i.e. the husband and his two wives) of a particular family. It is interesting to note that the use of gotra-sailikā and gātra in the sense of a memorial pillar has so far been found only in the said records of the Rewa region.
Cf. ibid., p. 6. This is the Supia (former Rewa State) pillar inscription of the reign of Skandagupt (456-67 A.D.), dated in the Gupta year 141 (460 A.D.). Cf. CII., Vol. IV, p. 607 and note 7, to which my attention was drawn when the present note was going through the press.
* This is No. 528 of 1957-58, Appendix B. See ABIAR, 1935-36, p. 96. . Expressed by symbol. • Read Jydahtha.
Road Budhe. • A word like dat would suit the context. * Better read Bhomina-Somaba-Chalo-Sahadevaih.