Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

Author(s): E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 57

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VIII.
........., (and) son's son of the king, the Mahakshatrapa Lord Chashtans the taking of whose name is auspicious, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . when by the clouds pouring with rain the earth had been converted as it were into one ocean, by the excessively swollen floods of the Suvarnasikata, Palasini and other streams of mount Òrjayat the dam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., though proper precautions were taken], the water-churned by a storm which, of a most tremendous fury befitting the end of a mundane period, tore down hill-tops, treea, banks, turrets, upper stories, gates and raised places of shelter scattered, broke to pieces, (tore apart] . . . . . . . . . .,- with stones, trees, bushes and creeping plants scattered about, was thus . laid open down to the bottom of the river :
(L. 7.) By a breach four hundred and twenty cubits long, just as many broad, (and) seventy-five cubits deep, all the water escaped, so that the lake), almost like a sandy desert, [became] extremely ugly [to look at].
(L. 8.) 6 . . . for the sake of .. .. ordered to be made by the Vaisya Pushyagupta, the provincial governor 7 of the Maurya king Chandragupta, adorned with
The exact meaning of sugrilta-naman is well indicated by a passage in the Harshacharita, Bombay ed. p. 210, 1.6, which shows the result of uttering a bad man's paine: námadpi grinato 'sya pd pakárinah papamaleng lipyata ina me jihrá, as I take merely the name of this miscreant, my tongue seems soiled with a sinirch of sin.' Sugrihita naman itself often occurs in the Harshacharita, applied to rogal or noble persounges, both living and deceased; compare p. 30, 1.6; p. 85, 1. 13; p. 101, 1. 6; p. 179, 1. 8; p. 200, 1. 1; p. 246, 1. 20; p. 261, 1. 23; and p. 278, 1. 19. From inscriptions I can quote ouly sugrikita-ndmadhéya wbich occurs in the Badâmi pillar inscription of Mangalêsa, applied to Mangalesa's grandfather Rapariga, Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 16, 1. 3 of the text.
For the Lotion of the earth's being converted into one ocean (ékárnara-bkutáyásaiva) compare e.g. Ram. V. 49, 20 : ayan hyautsahatd kruddhah kartum-ékárnaran jagat. I may add that nouns ending in bhdla like ékárnava-bhita are most common in the Ramdyana ; I have noted dicharya-bhita, trina-bh., dahana-bh., nimitta. bh., nydsa-bh., ratna-on., Rama-bh., mrita-bhata iva (III. 86, 28), and others.
My translation of wpatalpa and uchchhraya regnires some justification. Dr. Bhagvanlal Indraji has trans. lated the former by '(pieces of the neighbouring ground,' Prof. Bübler by Tempelsionen' i.e. pinnaclts of tumples); and both scholars, I do not know on what authority, bave rendered uchchhraya by pillars of victory. To me it seems highly probable that the words atlak-&patalpa of our text are identical ia sense (as they are closely connected in form) with talp-atta in Ragh. XVI. 11, biblrna-talpadfta-ható wiodíah; there talpa is explained to mean's room on the top of a house' or 'upper story, and the same meaning I would claim for spatalpa. Uchchhraya in line 1 of this inscription is used in the sense of beight, and in line 13 in that of raising, lifting up, elevation. The word also (see e.g. the commentary on Rám. VII. 81, 10) means anything which rises,' elevation' in the sense of an elevated piece of ground,' etc.; and if in the present passage we take farañóchchhraya as one word, there is no reason to go beyond that strictly etymological meaning. Saranáchchhraya would be any raised place serving as shelter,' a meaning that seems perfectly appropriate. We may compare stambh6chchhraya in Gupta Inscr. p. 44, I. 13, used clearly in the sense of a raised pillar, a lofty pillar' (wehcharitan stambhah, as tbe expression is ibid. p. 9, 1. 80).- The reader will observe the contrast between wohchhraya and the immediately following vidhvansin, which two words remind one of wdaya-dhvansa and similar expressions found elsewhere.
• Vis, in the manner described in the following paragraph of the inscription. . For the play on the words - the lake Sudarsana became durdariana- compare Gupta Inscr. p. 60, 1. 17.
. This paragraph speaks of the original construction of the lake during the reign of the Maorge Chandragupts and of improvements made under (bis grandson) Asoka. The subject of the sentence undoubtedly again was the lake'; the lake (probally for the benefit of the people) had been ordered to be made . . .; it was adorned . . ').
7 The position held by Pashyagupta and Tusbåspha, who were immediately instrumental in the makiup and improving of the lake under Chandragupta and Asks, is indicated by the words rdshfriydina and adhishthaya respectively. Considering that adhi-shtha in line 20 of this inscription is used in the sense of 'to govern,' and that adhiah tidna in line 18 means' government,' it seems most natural to ascribe the same meaning also to adhishedya in the present passage, i.e. to translate it by after baving assumed the government' or 'while he was governing (this province).' And this again should lead us, I think, to escribe a similar meaning to rdshtriya. I accordingly take this word, in its etymological sense, to be equivalent to ndaltridhikrita, 'appointed to rule a province or district,' as the word is explained eg. in the commentaries on Amaraldia 1. 7, 14 (compare also På pini IV. 9, 93). The technical mosninga king's brother-in-laws' which the word has in the plays, would neem to be out of place here.