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No. 44.]
THREE INSCRIPTIONS FROM NORTHERN INDIA.
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il
92 Katakád harajah kávyanan kartta Nanniyabhatto lêkhakd Gaņdáchåryyah
Dvåttrimsattamê vija93 yardjya-varsh[è] varddha[må*]n kritam-idam sisanaḥ(nam) 1(l) •
No. 44.- THREE INSCRIPTIONS FROM NORTHERN INDIA.
BY F. KIELHORN, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. A.- Deogadh pillar inscription of Bhojadeva of Kanauj; (Vikrama-Samvat 919
In Archæol. Suru. of India, Vol. X. Plate xxxiii. 2, Sir A. Cunningham has given a photozincograph of an inscription which was discovered by him on one of four massive pillars that support & detached portico in front of the principal Jaina temple at Deogadh, in Central India ;' and ibid. p. 101 he has given his reading of the text of the inscription and commented on the value of it. I re-edit the inscription from Sir A. Cunningham's own rubbings which have been made over to me by Dr. Fleet, and from an impression, supplied to me some time ago by Dr. Burgess
The inscription contains 10 lines of writing which covers a space of about 1' 4" broad by 1'21' high, and which, with the exception of a few letters, is very well preserved. The size of the letters is about 1". The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets. They include a form of the final t, in the word samvat in line 6,' and numeral figures for 1, 4, 7, 8 and 9, in lines 6 and 10. The language is Sanskrit, and the whole is in prose. In respect of grammar, it may be noted that the word stambha, 'a pillar,' throughout is treated as a nenter poun, that in Vrihaspati-dindna, in line 7, the Instrumental case is used where we should have expected the Locative case, and that in line 4, where the actual reading is paribhujyamáké, the writer probably meant to write-paribhujyamánakd (instead of -paribhujyamáné). As regards orthography, the letter 6 is denoted by the sign for o in Vļihaspati-, 1. 7, but not, so far as I can make out, in sabda, 1. 3, and -abda, 1. 10; the dental sibilant is used instead of the palatal in Asvayuja-, 1. 6; and t is doubled before r in - nakshattr8, 1. 8.
The inscription records that, in the reign of the Paramabhaffdraka Maharajadhirdja Paramétvara, the glorious Bhojadêve, while Luschchhagira was possessed (or governed) by the Mahdsdmanta or great fendatory Vishnurama, to whom the five mahatabdas had been granted by Bhojadova, the pillar which contains the inscription was caused to be made (or set up) near the temple of the holy (Jaina Arhat] Santi (or Santin&tba, at Luachchhagira), by Déva, a disciple of the Acharya Kamaladeva ; and that it was completed in the year 919, on the fourteenth tithi of the bright half of the month Agvayuja (or Asvina), on a Thursday, while the nakshatra was Uttarabhadrapada, and made by the Goshthika. V&juågagåka. Besides, the concluding line gives, both in words and in figures, the years of the Sala era 784.
Rend dhirdjah and compare the similar terms kafakardja, katakdahlia and katakdia of cognate inscriptions; Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 267, note 5.
Indian Atlas, quarter-sheet No. 70 N. W., Long. 78" 18" B., Lat. 24° 32' N.
The sign of the final t, employed in the original, is not in the least like the sign shown in the published photozincograpb; it is essentially the sign for t which is used, e.g., in the word amdohayat in line 7 of the KndArkot inscription of Takshadatta (Bp. Ind. Vol. I. p. 181, Plate).
• This name, the reading of which appears to me certain, I have not found elsewhere.
According to Prof. Bübler, Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 190, note 50, the górhfhikas are the members of the Palich or committee ontrusted with the management of religions endowments, compare also Ind, 4sl. Vol. XI. p. 338, last line of the text, where Dr, Hultzsch has translated the word by 'trustee.'
