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MAHABAN PRASASTI.
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XXI. THE MAHABAN PRASASTI OF SAMVAT 1207.
By G. BÜHLER, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.
The subjoined inscription is identical with that which I have published, ante, vol. I, p. 287, under the title Mathurá Prasasti of the Reign of Vijayapála, according to an impression, furnished to me by Dr. A. Führer and described as an 'Inscription on black basalt recovered from Kesava mound at Mathurâ, 10th February 1889.'
Shortly after the publication of my article Dr. Führer wrote to me that he did not agree with my restoration of the king's name as Vijayapâla, because he had obtained lately from Mahâban another small inscription of the same period, which showed a different reading. His remarks induced me to look over Sir A. Cunningham's notices of Mahâban in the Archæological Survey Reports, where I found the facsimile' of a much more complete version of this supposed Mathurá Prasasti, and the statement that the document had been obtained at Mahâban in 1882-83; my friend, Professor Kielhorn, likewise pointed it out to me. For some time I thought that Dr. Führer's inscription, in which the central portion has been rubbed out by the stone being used for grinding spices or dál and a large piece at the right-hand corner has been broken off, might be a duplicate of Sir A. Cunningham's. But this theory became doubtful, when in answer to my enquiries Dr. Führer stated that Sir A. Cunningham's stone was not traceable at Mahâban. And it became absolutely untenable, when some time ago Dr. J. Burgess found Sir A. Cunningham's impression from which his lithograph was prepared. A comparison with Dr. Führer's impression shows that the latter has, in the portions preserved, all the minor abrasions which are found on Sir A. Cunningham's slab, whereby the identity of the two originals is established. It would now seem that, after Sir A. Cunningham's impression was taken in 1882-83, the stone was taken away from Mahâban, used as a grinding stone by somebody, and finally brought as a find from the Kesava mound to Dr. Führer, who in 1889 received quite a number of fragments from the railway-workmen at Mathura.
I now re-edit the inscription according to Sir A. Cunningham's impression, which is reproduced in the accompanying plate and permits me to give a much better version.
As regards the contents of the inscription, it is now plain that it refers to the erection of a temple at Mahâban. The paramount king, mentioned in the colophon, is probably, as Sir A. Cunningham has stated, op. cit., vol. XX, p. 42, Ajaya pâla, not Vijayapala. And he may belong to the Yaduvathét dynasty of Bayana-Sripath (see the pedigree op. cit., p. 7). This view, which Sir A. Cunningham has put forward, is confirmed by the fact that Dr. Führer's above mentioned new inscription from
1 Cunningham's Archeological Survey Reports, vol. XX, pl. x.
The use of the slab for grinding condiments upon is perfectly evident from the impression, where a round piece in the centre is blank, and at the sides the deeper strokes of the letters are visible, while the shallower ones have disappeared. Dr. Führer has also sent me squeezes of several other fragments, which bear in pencil the dates when they came into his hands. One which is unfortunately very small shows the name of paramesvara-tri-Siladityadeva and may belong to the seventh
century.
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