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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
XXX.-AN UNDATED PRASASTI FROM THE REIGN OF MAHENDRAPALA OF KANAUJ.
By G. BÜHLER, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.
A portion of the subjoined inscription was discovered many years ago by Mr. Bowring at Pehoa, together with the grant of the horse-dealers, dated [Sriharsha] Samvat 276, in the reign of king Bhoja (ante, p. 184), and was published, together with the latter, by Dr. Rajendralâl Mitra in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. XXII, pp. 675 ff. Of late the whole document has been recovered, and the circumstances leading to its recovery are as follows. Dr. Burgess found that the stone slab, on which it is incised, was fixed in the wall of a house, in the bazar, belonging to a Siddh,' close to the jamb of a door, and was used as a seat. As this jamb partly rested on the slab and covered a portion of the inscription, Dr. Burgess got Mr. Rodgers, the Archeological Surveyor in the Panjab, to try to prevail on the owner of the building to allow the slab to be removed. The latter, however, was unwilling to allow this, and Mr. Rodgers was then asked to undertake further negotiations and to get the countenance of Mr. Drummond, the Deputy Commissioner of Karnål, in either purchasing the slab or in exchanging it for another that would do the same service to the owner. Through the kind offices of Mr. Drummond the stone was finally secured and sent to the Lahore Museum, where Mr. J. L. Kipling, C.I.E., took two excellent paper-impressions, which were forwarded to Dr. Burgess by Mr. Rodgers and made over to me for preparing a new edition of the inscription. The inscription is now complete, while in the copy used by Dr. Rajendralâl about one third of each line-its left-hand portion-was missing.
Judging from the impression, the slab on which the inscription is incised measures 86 inches by 24. The stone-mason has done his work with great care; for there are very few Indian epigraphical monuments which show an equal amount of neatness and artistic finish in their execution. Owing to the rough treatment which the stone has undergone, a certain number of letters have, however, been either obliterated or become indistinct. Lines 3-7 have lost from four to seven letters at the beginning; in lines 1-6 the letters 17-21 on the left-hand side have been partly rubbed' out, and lines 20-21 have lost a piece out of the middle. Moreover, a number of single letters and small groups have been defaced in various places on the right-hand side of the inscription. It is, however, fortunately possible to restore most of the lost signs with some degree of certainty by conjecture.
The characters of the inscription are of the ordinary Nagari type, current in Northern and Western India during the ninth and tenth centuries; and they resemble most closely those of the horse-dealers' grant, mentioned above. The superscribed mátrde show, however, ornamental additions, similar to those used in the Jhalrapâțan Prasasti (Indian Antiquary, vol. V, p. 180), and the same ornaments appear occasionally in the tails of some letters (see, e.g., note 10 to the transcript). The language is very good Sanskrit and throughout metrical. As regards the orthography, the constant substitution of va for ba and the frequent use of the Jihoamaliya and Upadhmaniya deserve to be noted, as well as some rather unusual sandhis,-e.g., in samantádyatu for samantáddyatu, line 4; saéérímán for saérímán, line 5; sirmánádve for nirmágáddee, line 12; satphalánammramártiḥ, line 15; and so forth.
1 See Cunningham's Archæological Survey of India Reports, vol. II, p. 225; and vol. XIV, pp. 101, 102.
