Epigraphia Indica Vol 03

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

Page 13

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
VOL. III.
approximate more closely to the characters of the Bodh-Gayà inscription than to those of the Sâmångad grant: for instance, the initial a is exactly like the initial & of the Bodh-Gaya inscription (allowing, of course, for the mark which turns a into d), whereas the initial a of the Sâmångad grant is a very different letter; the p, m, 8, and y follow the Bodh-Gayå inscription, in not having the fully developed top line which appears in the Sâmångad grant; and the k, p, and v have the pointed forms of the Bodh-Gay& inscription : on the other hand, -except perhaps in acharya, line 23,- in the conjunct letter ry, the r is formed above the line of writing, as in the Sâmângad grant, and not on it, as in the Bodh-Gayà inscription. The peculiarities of the characters are evidently due to the Brahman from Northern India, for whom the pillar was set up; and the comparative results suggest that the Nagari alphabet which is exhibited in the Såmångad grant, was developed in Central and Southern India more quickly than in Northern India. It should also be noted that such of the letters of the present Nagari record as were fully executed in what was evidently the intended style, and have been well preserved, show, wherever the form of the letter permits of it, a well-marked triangular top, in which the apex of the triangle points downwards, and the centre of it is left in relief in the middle of the three strokes by which the top is formed: this is discernible in k, ch, j, t, d, n, p, bh, m, y, r, 1, v,, sh, s, and h; the shapes of g, i, , t , and dh, do not permit of it; in th it is doubtful. It may also be mentioned that this record and the Såmångad grant, which is six months earlier in actaal date, give the earliest instances, as yet obtained, of the use of Nagari characters in Western India. My text of the inscription is put together from the two copies. Owing to the rough treatment that the pillar has received at the hands of its worshippers, each copy of the inscription is more or less damaged: but they mostly supply each other's deficiencies; and the whole text is decipherable, without any donbtful pointa, except three akaharas at the end of line 14, two in line 18, two in line 19, four in line 20, and thirteen or fourteen in line 24, and practically the whole of line 25. As a matter of fact, as far as the end of line 14, the text can be read alınost entirely in the version in the local characters, without the aid of the other at all; from that point, however, the Någari version, though by no means, on the whole, the better preserved of the two, becomes of more and more use in respect of the last quarter of each guccessive line of the version in the local characters, which is the one followed by me for the arrangement of the lines in my Text. The language is Sanskrit. And, except for an opening verse in praise of Siva and Parvati, under the names of Hars and Gaurl, the whole record ts in prose. - In respect of orthography, the only points that call for notice here are (1) a con. fusion, in both versions, between Ți and ri; thus, the Nagari version, though usually correct, gives, mistakenly, priya), line 8, priyd, lines 10 and 12, trifdla, line 21, trishabhir, line 21, and trimsan, line 22; and the other version, though correct in respect of prithivi, line 13, and grihitáni, line 22, wrongly gives prithivi, lines 6 and 9, and krita, line 19, and, on the other hand, priya, line 12; (2) the use of for b, in the Nagari version, in thu-parichumvita, line 1, and velvalla, line 20, and, in both versions, in vrahma, line 21; (3) the absence of the in the Nagari version ; (4) the omission, in the Någari version, to double y after t, all through; (5) the doubling of t before t, for the most part apiformly in both versions, in puttraḥ, line , pauttrena, line 15, puttréna, line 16, attra, line 18, and ttri, lines 19 and 21, though the same does not occur in sundry other places; and (6), in the Nagari version, the doubling of dh, by d, in payóddharo, line 1, and gayaddharéna, line 19, and in viddhrita, line 2, where it is due to the following ri.
The inscription belongs to the time of the Western Chalukya king Kirtivarman II.1 It mentions first his grandfather, Vijayaditya, who, it tells us, erected a great stone temple
I take this opportunity of publishing a revised table of the dynasty of the Western Chalukyus of BadAmi. The numerals prefized to certain names indicate the members of the family who actually relgoed, and the order in which they succeeded each other.