Epigraphia Indica Vol 02

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 23

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(V. 9.) That lord having gone far away, his fame shows like a forsaken woman; deriding white sandal, it reproves the lustre of the moon, and is a reproach to a string of pearls.
(10.) His son was Gangeyadeva, a thunderbolt falling on the heads of enemies (and) the lord of the fortune of heroes, with a chest broad like an emerald tablet, (and) with smiling eyes, (and) with his two arms surpassing the length of a city bar.
(11.) The crest-jewel of crowned heads, he has become famous under the name of Vikramaditya; for, striving after final beatitude (and) free from wicked deceit, he ruled the earth which he had himself conquered all of a sudden.
(12.) When, fond of residing at the foot of the holy fig tree of Prayaga, he had found salvation there together with his hundred wives, his son Karnadeva honoured the quarters with the pearls from the frontal globes of the majestic elephants of his enemies, cleft by his sword.
(13.) Of him whose great fame is like the circle of waves of the milky ocean, need we say more than that here, at Kaši, there is a temple (erected by him), Karna's Meru, (80 lofty) that the wind of the flags which wave from its golden spires lessens the fatigue of the damsels of heaven, when playing in the sky ?
(14.) He set up the pillar of piety, called Karnavati, the foremost abode of bliss, the root of the creeping plant-knowledge of the Vedas, the diadem of the stream of heaven, the world of Brahman on the surface of the earth.
(15.) That lord of the Kalachuris begat on the illustrious Âvalladevi, (another) goddess of fortune produced from the ocean of the Huņa family, the illustrious Yabah. karnadeva, the glory of whose fame is co-extensive with the billows of the milky ocean which rose (when he arose), mistaking him to be the rising moon.
(16.) of this law-abiding (son) the father, whose aets were purified by the respect which he paid to the family priests, performed himself the great inauguration ceremony in the midst of the four great oceans, made resplendent, as by a full jar, by the king of mountains, and illumined by the moon and the sun.“
(17.) Glorious is that jewel-lamp" of Jambadvipa which sends forth its rays in the darkness of night of the Kali age, never filled with partiality for the assemblies of the arrogant, and never displaying the lampblack-base conduct.
(18.) If the milk of the cow of plenty were (put) within the two black shells of the gem which grants every desire, then there would be seen a likeness with the eyes of that bountiful (king) whose eyes are both white and red."
(19.) He erected high pillars of victory near the confines of the regions, as companions of the posts to which the elephants of the quarters are fastened.
(20.) This bountiful (lord) puts five or six drops of water into the hands of the
• Meru denotes a particular kind of temple (hexagonal, with twelve stories, variegated windows, and four entrances; Brihatrahita, Ivi, 20), and the word is chosen here because it is also the name of the well-known fabulous mountain of Anormoun height, the summit of which is the residence of Brahman. A similar temple is said to have been built by Gångeyadeva; see v. 9 of the next inscription.
• At an ordinary abhisheka water from all the oceans, golden jars, etc., should be used. To show the magnificence of Yasahkarna's abhisheka, the poet says that the ceremony here was performed in the midst of the four oceans, and that the Himalaya took the place of the ordinary golden jars, etc.; and ho implies that Y. was inaugurated in the sovereiguty of the whole eartb, bounded by the oceans.
4 1.e., a lamp in which jewels give out light. Jambůdvipa is the central division of the world, including India.
The general meaning of this verse is that the king possesses the properties of both the fabulous cow of plenty and the gem which grants every desire.