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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
up her abode, foreseeing, as it were, (that it would be) the birth-place of high-minded future lords of the earth;
6. Who (Vairavarman), being liberal, pious, energetic, fond of truth, famous, a follower of the path of the virtuous, pure, of firm intellect, exalted through (proper) pride," politic, the abode of valour, munificence and discernment, an associate of the virtuous, (and) endowed with all virtues, became worshipful for great men.
7. From him sprang illustrious Bhushana" of fierce prowess, an ornament of the whole earth, who through the expansion of his exceedingly terrible lustre prevented mud (i.e. his) enemies from sticking (to him). Through the heat of the breath of the very stout serpent Sesha who lying under the earth was wounded by the weight of that (Bhushana's) army when it strenuously marched forward, the abode of the snakes (Pátála) was converted into a salt-marsh.
8. In the forest-lakes which were marked, as it were, with hundreds of dark spots sprung from the ichor that dropped from the temples of the rutting elephants of his army, even the wild elephants-how much less those of his enemies-no longer drank water.
9. His footstool was scratched by the crowns of a multitude of princes who came to serve him; he was the lord of the earth that is encircled by the four oceans as by an ornamental zone; the oceans were almost dried up by his camps (as) by those of the lord of the Raghus, resembling one of the primeval mountains he stood supporting the earth."
10. This capital of his, filled as it were with numerous excellent qualities that are lovely like the shape of the beams of the moon, glitters even at present, charming on account of its woods that are dark-green like emeralds, (and) seems to rival the town of the lord of the immortals with its gardens resembling Nandana, with its high-topped temples of the gods that are resplendent with the sprinkling of exceedingly pure whitewash.
11. His younger brother was the illustrious Malhana, who, in devotion, bowed to Bhava,-whose strong arm was stout like a club, who resplendent (with fame) sportively took over the burden (of the empire) from his brother, proving himself equal to the multitude of hostile kings with his sword."
12. Though he gained thereby great royal fortune, he showed the highest devotion to gods, Gurus and Brahmans; he was born for the joy of his friends, intimates and kinsmen; he spread delight among his subjects by destroying the wicked.
Or, "exalted through honours" (conferred by his suzerain).
Bhushana, left out in Mr. Prinsep's translation, not the monstrous M & msohanda-prataps, which owes its origin to a wrong division of the syllables of two epithets and to a mislection, is the name of the second chief. Bhushana is still a very common proper name, usually spelt and pronounced Bhikhap. By the epithet chandapratapah, Bhashana is compared with the sun and this comparison suggests that of his enemies to the mud which the sun dries up and prevents from sticking.
"The translation of the third and fourth Pådas is not certain. In Pada 9, I have taken vikehepa in the sense of camp' which it certainly has in the inscriptions of the Gurjara king Dadda II. If that is correct, it must be assumed that the armies are represented as having required, on account of their magnitude, the whole contents of the oceans for drinkingwater. Indian poets frequently speak of the soldiers of their heroes drinking from the ocean, apparently forgetting that the thing is impossible (see eg. the great Andhra inscription of Pulumayi, Arch. Reports of Western India, vol. IV, p. 108, 1. 3). Possibly, however, vikthepa may mean 'constructions and the poet wished to say that Bhushana built bridges or dams across the ocean, as Rama did when invading Ceylon. In the fourth Pada I have left untranslated the words tasyd pi, of which I cannot make anything. I am inclined to assume that they have been put in in order to make up the verse. o Dhavala, resplendent (with fame),' may possibly be intended as a second name or biruda of Malhana.
One would have expected chakrah. But the actual reading may be defended on the supposition that the compound is an aryayfbháva modifying deabhára. It would seem that Malhana had to fight for the succession or possibly took the chiefship by force from his brother.
