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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. IX.
The first part (lines 1–31) also commences with or namaḥ and ends with a date which will be given below. Between the two there are 32 verses, the text of more than two-thirds of which may be given with perfect certainty, while there is no doubt about the general meaning of any of the rest. The verses form a prasasti, the main object of which is to record in verses 25 and 26) that the king Parabals of some Båshtrakûţa family founded a temple of Sauri (Hari, Vishņu), before which he erected the Garuda-crested pillar on which the inscription is engraved. The prasasti opens with four verses which invoke the protection of, and glorify, the god Vishņu, under the names of Marâri, Krishịa and Hari. It then (in verses 5-7) relates that formerly there was a king Jêjja, under whom this Rashtrakūta varsa' was flourishing, and whose (unnamed) elder brother, after defeating thousands of Karnața soldiers with their arrays of elephants, obtained the Lata kingdom. Jéjja's son was Karkardja (v. 11), who put to flight the king Nagávalóka and in vaded his home (vv. 14 and 15). And Karkaraja's son was Parabala, represented as ruling the land when the inscription was composed (V. 18). The rest records that the pillar was actually set up by the king's chief minister, whose name is not clear in the impressions, and that the prasasti was composed by Harsha (v. 29) and engraved by the sutradhára Såhila (v. 31), while the last verse 32 contains the usual prayer that the king's pious work and his fame may endure for ever.- The date at the end of line 31 is samvat 917 Chaittra-fudi 6 Sukra, i.e." Friday, the 6th of the bright half of Chaitra of the year 917." In this date the numeral figures for the year are particularly clear, and cannot be read in any other way. The figure for 9 is the same as e.g. in line 6 of the Deðgadh pillar inscription of the time of Bbôjadêva of the (Vikrama] year 919 (Archæol. Surv. of India, Vol. X, Plate xxxii. 2), and in line 22 of the Garmha plate of Jayadityadêya II, of the Vikrama) year 927 (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. Vol. LXX. Part I. Plate i). The date must of course be referred to the Vikrama era. It is one of the earliest dates of that era which admit of exact verification and corresponds regularly, for the expired Karttikadi Vikrama year 917, to Friday, the 21st March A.D. 861, when the 6th tithi of the bright half of Chaitra ended 16 h. 44 m. after mean sunrise.
The prasasti will, I think, be admitted to contain some rather pretty verses. Its author, so far as I can judge, was well acquainted, amongst other poetical works, with Magha's Sisurdlavadha, and in the composition of at least one verse he undoubtedly drew his inspiration from that poem. I refer to verse 16, which may be compared with Sis. XIX. 52. The former is :
Sakaliksita-sarvárgá nánábharanabhúshitáli
drisyante ripavo yasya nândbharanabhúshitah II “With their limbs all cut to pieces (and thus)* decorated with manifold ornaments (abharana), bis enemies are seen to abide on various battle-fields (rara-bha)." And Mågha's verse is :
Sastravranamaya-frimad-alankaranabhashitah
dadrite snyó Ravanavad-alankarañabhúshitaḥ 11 "Decorated with glorious ornaments (alankarana) which consisted in the wounds inflicted by weapons, another looked like Råvana, though abiding on a battle-field (rana-bhi) that was not connected with Lanka."
1 The original apparently mentions the place where Nagávalóka was put to flight, but the name of it cannot be read with confidence. See verse 14 and the translation of it below.
Compare e.g. verses 13, 15, 20 and 30.
The praiasti somewhat pointedly ends with the word fremall, which, in the case of an author who had studied the fryanka maldkávya does not seem to me to be without significance.
• Compare the following note.
Mallinktha explains: sarengnarranabdehanaténa Rdvara bodyan Lankdaashbandha-viraldtoto oyalirika ity-artha) i wpamd-rya/irka-yamakdndu sarkarah
