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204
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VI.
account of Bhavadêva's attainments as a scholar (vv. 20-25), which as far as possible may be given in the author's own words :
(V. 20.) A pattern of those who know the Brahma's non-duality, a creator of wonder to those (even) who are learned themselves, & sage who comprehends the deep meaning of Bhatta's! lays, a very Agastya to the Bauddha ses, clever in refuting the devices of cavilling heretics, he play. fully acts the part of the Omniscient on earth.
(V. 21.) Seeing across the ocean of the Sanhitda, Tantral and computation, causing wonder to all by his knowledge of astrology, himself the author and promulgator of a new work on horoscopy (hör &-fdstra), he clearly has proved another Vardha.
(V. 22.) In the several branches of law he has eclipeed the old expositions by composing suitable treatises of his own; by a good comment elucidating the verses on law of the sages, he has swept away all doubt regarding the rites taught by the Smsitis.
(V. 23.) In the Mimánsd, by following the lead of Bhatta, he has composed that wellknown guide whose thousand maxims, like the rays of the sun, do not endure darkness. What need is there to say more? Proficient in the whole range of sacred hymns, in all the arts of the poets, in every traditional lore, in the works on worldly affairs, in the sciences of medicine and of arms, eto., he indeed is without a second.
(V. 24.) By whom, indeed, is his (other) name Balavalabhibhujanga not honoureda name, heard and celebrated and chanted with rapture even by the Mimdmad?
(V. 25.) Restoring to life all the world by his magical spells which are like the morning tunes of music to the night of stupefaction canged by the bites of fanged furions serpents, he, & new vanquisher of death, in sporting with poisons has proved (a very) Nilakantha.
This Bhavadêva, then, had a reservoir of water constructed in the country of Radha (v.26). Moreover, at the place where the inscription is, he set up a stone image of the god Narayana (Vishn) (v. 27), and founded a temple of the god (v. 28), in which he placed images of his in the forms of NArayapa, Ananta and Nrisimha (v. 29). He also gave to HarimAdhas (Vishnu) a number of female attendants (v. 30), and had a tank dug in front of his temple (v. 81), and a garden laid out in its neighbourhood (v. 32).
The interest of this inscription lies in the fact that it treats, not of kings and princes, but of & scholar of whom, so far as we know, at least two literary works are still extant. From the more definite statements in the verses which have been translated above, it appears that, in astronomy and astrology, Bhatta Bhavadova was the author of a Hord-ldstra; that he wrote one or more treatises and a commentary relating to law or to religious rites; and that, as a student of the Mimdms& philosophy, he composed a work connected with the writings of Bhatta Kumkrila. His Hôr-dastra has not been traced yet in the published catalogues. But as regards his other works, Prof. Eggeling in his Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manusoripts in the Library of the India Office under No. 1725 describes & Ms. of the 'Prayaschitta-rirüpana (or prakarana),' a treatise on expiatory rites, composed by Bhatta Bhavadêva, surnamed Balavalabhibhujanga'; and under
1L.. Kumarila, the author of the Mim dried-tantraedrttika, eto.
Sanabitd in its wider sense denotes complete course of the jyotiņdatra, of which tantra is the special branch tresting of the motions of the heavenly bodies; in s narrower sense the word denotes that branch of astrology which is also called idki. See Dr. Thibaut's Astronomie, p. 64.
Phala-sakita apparently is equivalent to phala-grantha,' work describing the effects (of celestial phenomens on the destinies of men).
• Lo. the well-known writer on astronomy, ato., Varlhamihirs.
1.6. the god Siva, on whom the poison which he wallowed at the churning of the ocean, beyond leaving blue mark on his thront, had no effect whatever.
The second of the introductory verses of this work is: Hawo-ddi-rmpitiwedl6kga r-ritjolye yatha kroman i kriyatd Bkapadlotna prdyafehitta-nirdipapam I
