Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

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

Page 60

No. 6.]
JUNAGADH INSCRIPTION OF RUDRADAMAN.
49
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prose and verse, which are clear, agreeable, sweet, charming, beautiful, excelling by the proper use of words and adorned; whose beautiful frame owns the most excellent marks and signs, such as (auspicious) length, dimension and height, voice, gait, colour, vigour and strength; who himself has acquired the name of Mahâkshatrapa; who has been wreathed with many garlands at the svayamvaras of kings' daughters;- he, the Mahâkshatrapa Rudradaman, in order to cows and Brahmans for a thousand of years, and to increase his religious merit and fame, without 'oppressing the inhabitants of the towns and countrys by taxes, forced labour and acts of affection- by (the expenditure of) a vast amount of money from his own treasury and in not too long a time made the dam three times as strong in breadth and length .... [on] all [banks] . . .. (and so) had (this lake) made (even) more beautiful to look at.
(L. 16.) When in this matter the Mahâkshatrapa's counsellors and executive officers, who though fully endowed with the qualifications of ministers, were averse to a task (regarded as) futile? on account of the enormous extent of the breach, opposed the commencement (of the work), (anu) when the people in their despair of having the dam rebuilt were loudly lamenting, (the work) was carried out by the minister Suvisakha, the son of Kulaipa, a Pahlava, who for the benefit of the inhabitants of the towns and country had been appointed by the king in this government to rule the whole of Ânarta and Surashtra, (a minister) who by his proper dealings and views in things temporal and spiritual increased the attachment (of the people), who was able, patient, not wavering, not arrogant, upright (and) not to be bribed, (and) who by his good10 government increased the spiritual merit, fame and glory of his master.
vyakti, which depends on an author's giving clear verbal expression to his thoughts instead of leaving them to be guessed. Laghu, 'agreeable' (ishta), and chitra, 'charming,' seem too vague expressions to connect them confidently with any particular qualities of the text-books; alamkrita, 'adorned,' requires no explanation.
1 Compare Rám. V. 33, 11, vyanjandni hi té yani lakshandni cha; and, for various auspicious marks and signs, ibid. I. 1, 9 ff., II. 48, 29 ff., V. 35, 8 ff., etc.
2 I.e., shortly, in order to benefit.' The original text may have contained something equivalent to go-brdhmaṇa-hitárthaya désasya cha hitaya cha in Rám. I. 26, 5. The expression go-brahmana, cows and Brahmans,' is very common; see e.g. ibid. III. 23, 28; 24, 21; VI. 107, 49; 117, 20, etc.; Gupta Inser. p. 89, 1. 9, gó-brahmana-purogabhyaḥ sarvva-prajabhyaḥ; and above, Vol. VI. p. 20, note 1.
The words paura-jdnapadam janam of the text clearly are the second or fourth Påda of an ordinary Ślôka; the same phrase we actually have e.g. in Rám. II. 111, 19 and 27, paura-janapadó janah in II. 2, 51, paurajanapadá jandḥ in VII. 43, 5, etc. Paurajánapada-jana occurs again in line 18 of the text.
Dr. Bhagvanlal Indraji suggested that pranaya-kriya may be 'a kind of tax like the modern pritidán.' I have not found the word elsewhere, used as a technical term, and can only suggest that it may denote offerings or contributions which nominally are voluntary, but which people feel constrained to make to please somebody or for other reasons.
I.e., perhaps, 'planted trees on all banks."
As above (see p. 46, note 5) there is here also a play on the words; the lake Sudarsana was made sudarfanatara.
On the analogy of compounds like apratishédhaḥ-anarthakaḥ pratishédhaḥ, avachanam anarthakam eachanam, which we find in grammatical works, I explain anutsdha by anarthaka utsáha, a fatile (or impossible) task. In connection with this explanation we may note that the two words pratyákhyata and árambha of the text are just such as a grammarian would be familiar with.
Since I have translated somewhat freely, I would state that pratyakhyat-drambham, which has been objected to as grammatically wrong, in my opinion is correct. The word is the subject of anushṭhitam in line 20; 'that of which the commencement was opposed was carried out.'
With punaḥsetubandha-nairdtydt compare karya-nairdsydt in Rdm. V. 35, 57; with hdhábhûtásu prajásu, Gupta Inscr. p. 60, 1. 17, vishadya[manah khalu sarvató ja]ndḥ katham-katham karyam-iti pravddinaḥ. Hdhdbhuta, 'exclaiming hd hd,' like hdhdkrita, is well known from the Mahabharata etc.
10 For the way in which su in seadhitishṭhatd is prefixed to a present participle we may compare Ram. II. 33, 4. sufakyanté; VI. 40, 18, suchératuḥ; VI. 110, 9, suparivartate; V. 62, 21, suparigrihya; VII. 30, 36, sunirbharteya; etc.
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