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196
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
The inscription, so far as I can judge from the impression, consists of 29 lines. The writing covers a space of about 4' 01 broad by 3' 1" high, and a considerable portion of it is greatly damaged. Thus, the last line is almost completely effaced, and portions of about half the number of lines are either gone altogether or have become illegible, as will be seen from my transcript of the text. Fortunately, however, the names of the royal personages mentioned in the inscription are all well preserved, so that in all probability little of historical importance has been lost. The size of the letters is about t". The characters are Nagart of about the twelfth century, similar in style to those of the inscriptions from Ajaygadh and Mahoba, of which photo-lithographs are given in Cunningham's Archeologioal Survey of India, vol. XXI, plates xv and xxi-xxiii; and all that need be said about them here, is that in this particular alphabet it is some. times difficult to distinguish between the signs for g, n and m. The language is Sanskrit, and, so far as the inscription is legible, it is in verse throughout. The names of the composer and of the engraver may have been given in the concluding lines, but they are no longer legible. As regards orthography, 6 is denoted by the sign for o everywhere except in Kanyakubjan, line 3, abdher, line 14, abbhranlihair and abbhrabhránti, line 18. babhdouh () and bibhrad, line 21, and bbhúyasl, line 28; the dental is used instead of the amusvåra in fubhránku, line 10, dansa, lines 11 (twice), 19 (?) and 28, mimdnsaka, line 11, and yajñánka, line 19; and ujsala occurs for ujjvala, in lines 18 and 15 but not in line 16).
The inscription, in its present state, contains no date, but as it clearly is of the time of the (Chandella) king Madanavarman,' it must be referred to about the middle of the twelfth century A. D. Its proper object is to record the erection of a temple of Vishnu, the building of a tank near the village of Deddu, and the execution of some other work of piety, by one of the king's ministers whose name appears to have been Gadadhara (verses 46-48); and by way of introduction the inscription (in verses 3-16) gives a list of the (Ohandella) kings from Dhanga to Madanavarman, and (in verses 17-46) an acoount of the family of the ministers of these kings, to which Gadadhara belonged.
The line of kings here presented to us, together with few remarks of historical importance, is as follows :
(1.) Dhanga, defeated the king of Kanyakubja (v. 8). (2.) His son Gandadera (v.4). (8.) His son Vidyadharadeva (v. 6). (4.) His son Vijayapdla (v. 6). (5.) His son Kirtivarmadeva (vv. 7-8). (6.) His son Sallakshanavarmadeva (vv. 9.10); evidently carried on a war
in the country of Antarvedt (vv. 38-39). (7.) His son Jayavarmadeva (v. 11); succeeded by (8.) Prithvivarman, the younger brother of (6) Sallakshanavarman,
(vv, 12-18). (9.) His son Madanavarman defeated the kings of Ohedi and Malava, and
made the king of Kasi keep on friendly terms (vv. 14-16).
