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

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
TEXT1
1 Siddham2 [*] svasti [*] Prachakāśāyāḥ paramabhaṭā(ṭṭā)raka-pad-änudhyāta Isvararata[b] kusali
2 Vankika-paṭṭē Vēdhyakupika-grāma-samupāgatātsa (n=sa)rvvän-ev-asmad-ayukta
vini
[VOL. XXXIII
3 yuktin-kumārāmāty-öparika-dāpḍika-dapdapātika-hastyasvajanavy[prita]-cha4 bhat-ādīdbra(n=Bra)hman-ottarams-cha
grama-prativāsi[na]h
kusalam-anuvarnya.
bodhaya
No. 2. Supia Pillar Inscription of the time of Skandagupta, Gupta Year 141.
The stone pillar bearing the old inscription under study was discovered in the village of Supia in the former Rewa State now merged in Madhya Pradesh. The pillar was utilised at a much later date to incise another inscription recording a performance of the Sati rite. This second epigraph on the back side of the pillar is much damaged ; but its purport is clear from the sculptural representation above the lines of writing. The older inscription recording the purpose for which the pillar was orginally raised is written in seventeen lines covering an area about 8 inches in breadth and about 22 inches in height.
Impressions of the inscription and photographs of the pillar were received in the office of the Government Epigraphist for India for examination about fifteen years ago. A small paper on the inscription was read at the Archaeological Section of the Banaras Session of the All-India Oriental Conference, 1943-44. It was published in the Proceedings of the Session, Vol. III, 1948, pp. 587-89. Unfortunately, the note was based on an inaccurate transcript of the epigraph. It is stated that "the object of the inscription is to record the consecration of an image of the goddess Shashthi by one Chhandaka.' But what was read as Shash thi is clearly yashthi(shti) meaning 'a pillar' and undoubtedly referring to the stone pillar on which the inscription is engraved. It was moreover not Chhandaka but his brother Varga whose pious activity is described in the record. About ten years ago, I received an impression of the inscription from the late Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar through Dr. R. C. Majumdar and noticed it briefly in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Letters, Vol. XV, 1949, p. 6.
The characters are the same as in the contemporary inscriptions of the central part of India such as the earlier records of the kings of the Parivrajaka and Uchchakalpa dynasties. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit, although there are some errors of graminar and orthography. As regards orthography, it may be noted that, like many contemporary inscriptions, our epigraph exhibits the reduplication of some consonants preceding or following r. A point of orthographical interest is offered by the words vansa (for vam sa) and chatvärinsa (for chatvārim sa).
The date of the record is quoted in lines 8-9 in words as the year 141 of the reign of Skandagupta. The year has of course not to be referred to the regnal reckoning of the monarch, as the language may literally suggest, but to the Gupta era. Thus our inseription was engraved in the year 460-61 A.D. The specific day of the year, when the epigraph was incised, is indicated at the end of the record in lines 16-17, although the passage asyam divasa-pürvvāyām follows the mention of the year in lines 9-10 as if the day has been already indicated in the preceding section. The exact date of the record is given as the second tithi of the bright half of the month of Jyeshtha.
1 From the photograph published in the Vallabh Vidyanagar Research Bulletin, Vol. I, No. 2, International Language Section, Plato facing p. 4.
Expressed by symbol.
The last letter of the expression bodhayatt was apparently engraved on another plate which is now lost. Of. CII, Vol. IV, p. 607 and note, to which my attention was drawn when this paper was going through the press. Cf. ibid., Vol. III, pp. 93 ff., Nos. 21 ff.