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BADAUN INSCRIPTION OF LAKHANAPALA.
X.-BADAUN STONE INSCRIPTION OF LAKHANAPALA.
BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, PH.D., C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. This inscription was found in August 1887, in the ruins of the south gate of the old fort of Badaun, the chief town of the Badaun District of the North-Western Provinces, whence it has been removed to the Lucknow Museum.
The writing covers a space of about 3 feet broad by 1 foot 6 inches high, but the inscription is not complete now. All along the top, on the proper left side all the way down, and at the left side of the bottom, portions of the stone are broken away. But the aksharas which in consequence are missing on the left side are few, and can in almost every case be easily supplied; and at the top probably only one or two lines are lost, containing little more than the customary blessings and verses in honour of some deity, in the present case, probably Siva; and the introductory historical portion of the inscription, at any rate, appears to be complete. Nor does anything of importance seem to have been lost in the concluding lines, in the verses which either refer to the composer of the inscription or express the usual wish that the temple, the erection of which is recorded here, may last for ever. Excepting about half a dozen aksharas at the beginning of the last line, what remains of the inscription is well preserved, and may be read with certainty.
The average size of the letters varies from tot", and is somewhat less in the four or five bottom lines. The characters are Devanagart of about the 12th or 13th century A.D., and the inscription was engraved by the two artizans Goge and Jilhe (line 23). The language is Sanskrit, and excepting what possibly is a date, at the beginning of line 23, the inscription is in verse throughout. The verses were, it appears, composed by the poet Govindachandra, who is described as the youngest of the five sons of Gangadhara (himself the son of the sage Somés vara, a resident of Ahadegadha) and his wife Salha, a daughter of the learned Parasurama (lines 21-22). The inscription is remarkably free from minor errors, and in respect of orthography I therefore have only to note that ba is represented by the sign for va everywhere except in the word árabdha in line 23.
The inscription possibly, at the beginning of line 23, contains a date which at present, unfortunately, I am unable to make out from the impression submitted to me. Certain it is that it refers itself to the reign of a prince, Lakhaṇapala, and that it records the erection of a Siva-temple at the place, it may be presumed, where the inscription was discovered, and which is called here Vodamayûta (lines 1 and 11). And from these two points of view the inscription may be conveniently divided into two portions, the first of which, extending to near the end of line 7, gives the genealogy of Lakhaņapala, while the second part, comprising about lines 8–20, has reference to the founder of the temple and his spiritual predecessors. Of this latter portion it is sufficient to give
In the inscription, the place is called VodkmayatA (lines 1 and 11) and described as "the town of Bharata" (line 20.) Bir A. Cunningham, in the Archæol. Survey of India, val. XI, p. 1, states that, socording to the Brahmapu, its original name was either "Bedama" or "Bedamaya." (Conf. North-Western Provinces Gazetteer, vol. V, pp. 187 to 180. It is also written BadAyon.-J. B.)
