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40
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. X.
was (as it were) the preceptor in truth (-speaking), through the favour (?) of the glorious (god ?) Kalamkam Narayana, residing at Mahagoshtha,-(in this village) in the Saka year 1248 the Raktaksha-samvatsara, on Saturday, the[12]th tithi of the bright half of Chaitra,Āmaņa, an executive officer (P adeśakarin) of the glorious Harischandradeva, having gone to heaven (svarga), his companion (and) chaste wife Manikya[dēvi] [entered] eternity by entering
into fire
No. 9.-TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF THE TIME OF THE NAGAVAMSI KING NARASIMHADEVA.
BY RAI BAHADUR HIRA LAL, B.A.; NAGPUR.
When I visited the shrine of Dantesvari at Dantewără in the Bastar State in 1897, I saw a small stone pillar covered with Telugu writing (on all sides, viz. the four faces and the top) fixed at the place where goats were sacrificed. It was then being used as a yupa and the priests of the temple did not know what was written on it. My friend Rai Bahadur Baijnath sent me impressions from which the text was deciphered and a brief notice appeared in Vol. IX. (p. 163) of this Journal. Fresh impressions were subsequently taken by Mr. Venkoba Rao, and I am indebted to Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya for kindly revising the text after comparing it with the fresh impressions. The slab on which it is inscribed is 2′ 6" high, the breadth of each of the 4 faces being about 7" and the top is consequently 7" square. As stated above, the whole was covered with writing, but a portion has peeled off carrying away the final portions of almost all the lines of the third face and the beginnings of those of the fourth. Almost everything of the record on these 2 faces is lost. The engraving on the top is also much damaged and in the impressions almost the whole of it is illegible. It appears that there were altogether 43 lines on the 4 faces, and the top which appears to contain the end had 7 lines, making a total of 50. On the top of the first face, there are figures of the sun and the moon. Dantewāra being south of the Indravati which, as I have said elsewhere, formed the boundary between the Nagari and Telugu scripts, this record is in Telugu characters. The letters are bold and well formed with an average size of 1". Sa, ka and ra appear in a somewhat antiquated form. The language is Telugu. The object of the inscription was apparently to record a gift, which was made on the 10th day of the dark fortnight of Jyeshtha in the Saka year 1147, during the reign of Jagadēkabhushaṇa-Mahārāja Narasimhadēva. The date corresponds to 13th June 1224 A.D.5 as calculated by Mr. Gokul Prasad, Tahsildar of Dhamtari. It is not clear whether the grant was made by the king himself or by some one of his subjects, but the phrase friman Narasimhadēva-mahīrājula-rājya etc. (11. 6 to 11), "the reign of the illustrious Mahārāja Narasimhadeva " seems to show that it was some person other than the Maharaja who made a reference in this wise.
The other inscription was found at Jatanpal, 40 miles from Dantewară. It is situated to the north of the Indravati and is inscribed in the Nagari character on a slab measuring 4' x 1' 4",
2 I.e. a sacrificial post.
"
1 This probably refers to the last incarnation of the god Vishnu. 'Line 46 speaks of i dharmamu 'this charity and line 23 has devi, while in line 35 we have a portion of achandrarkka suggesting that either a village or some land was given till the sun and moon endured to the temple of Devi.
⚫ I originally read the date as 1140 (above, Vol. IX. p. 163). The last figure of the year is partially broken off and in the first impressions it looked like a zero, but in the fresh ones it appears to be 7.
* If the year 1147 is an expired one, the date would correspond to 2nd June 1225 A.D.
