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GOVINDPUR STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE POET GANGADHARA.
331
o and dh, and of the subscript u and r, have caused me no slight difficulty. The inscription never employs the signs of the jihvamuliya and upadhmániya, and the sign of the avagraha is used only once, in Gangadharo 'bhüt in line 24.
The language of the inscription is Samskrit, and, with the exception of the introductory om om namah Sarasvatyai and the date Šáka 1059 at the end, the whole is in verse. The writer and engraver have done their work with great care, so that, in respect of orthography, my remarks may be brief. As was to be expected, the letter 6 is throughout written by the sign for o. The dental sibilant is used instead of the palatal in Kasyapád, line 6, and prasrayaiḥ, line 7; and the palatal instead of the dental in fúribhir, line 29. Instead of anusvára we find the guttural nasal in the word vansa, in lines 2 and 5 (but not in line 4), and the dental nasal in avatansa, line 4. Before r, t has been doubled in mittra, lines 7 and 24, amittra, line 21, maittri, line 27, and atapattra, line 31; and bh is similarly doubled in avbhriyan (for abbhriyam), line 30. As regards the rules of euphony, t is left unchanged before & in frimatsankara, line 17; and m before y and v in samyattau, line 18, samvásáya, line 9, and sarvasvam-vilatára, line 11; and the dental sibilant is wrongly employed instead of the lingual in nisprabhárdham (assuming this to be the right reading) in line 13, and duskare (for dushkaro) in line 30. Of words which according to von Böhtlingk's Dictionary have been hitherto found only in lexicographical works our inscription offers girá 'speech, song,' in line 5, mahallaka 'eunuch,' in line 10, and átman in the sense of the sun,' in line 13. Besides we find Siviri for the neuter Sivira, in line 9, and the word rama ("husband and wife') apparently employed in the sense of parents,' in line 19. To a few other points, having reference to the grammar and to the construction of some of the verses, attention will be drawn below.
The inscription is dated, in lines 34-35, both in words and in figures, in the Saka year 1059, corresponding to A.D. 1137-38. It was engraved by the artisan salapáni, the son of Rudra and grandson of Uddharana (verse 39). And its immediate obiect is, to record that a man named Gangadhara, who has bimself composed this poem, for the spiritual benefit of his parents, built a tank near which the inscription must have been put up (verses 34-38). But what is of more importance is, that the author has furnished a praçasti," or eulogistic account, of himself and his family which enables us to fix the time of no less than six men who were known to us as poets from other sources, and some of whose verses have been preserved; and that he has given us the names of the rulers of Magadha, hitherto unknown, under whom he and some of his relatives lived and whose patronage they enjoyed. It may also be a matter of some interest to learn that the author's family belonged to the clan of the Maga or Såkadvîpiya Brahmans.
Opening with a verse which invokes the blessing of Visvambhara (Vishņu), tho inscription, in verse 2, glorifies both Aruņa (i.e. the dawn personified as the charioteer of the sun) whose presence sanctifies the milk-ocean-encircled Sakadvipa where the Bråhmans are named Magas,' and the Magas themselves who here, as elsewhere,' are said to have sprung from the sun's own body and to have been brought to India by
• According to verse 37 of the text Gangadhara composed two prasastis which both must have been engraved and put up close to each other. See Professor Weber's most interesting essay on the Magavyakti of Krislinadasa.
2 U 2
