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No. 26.]
SILIMPUR STONE-SLAB INSCRIPTION.
285
find an inscription treating, not of kings and ministers, but of a Brahmana who was born in an orthodox family which was glorified by the birth of great scholars, accustomed to perform religious rites according to the injunctions of the sastras. As a piece of material for the social history of Bengal in medieval times, t'is inscription is very important. For the convenience of ready reference, an abstract of the contents of wole irzeri tion is given here.
After the words "Om! Adoration to Bhavan Vasuva" the author invokes (verse 1) the protection of Chaturbhuja (Vishnu). Verses 2 1 3 disclose the fact that the Brahmanas who had their descent from Agiras and w' belonged to the same gōtra with Bharadvaj had their home in a place called Tarkari situated within the limits of Śrāvasti; and that they observed all the sacrificial (vaitana) and domestic (garhya) ceremonials in accordance with the rules of the Vodas and the Smritis, in which they were all well-versed. A village of the name of Va(Ba)lagräma is stated in verse 4 to hr ve been t) e ornament of the land of Varendril in the country of Pundra, and to have been an offshoot of Tarkari (verse 2), but parted therefrom by Sakați (probably the name of a river or of a place). In this village of Balagrama there lived many Brahmana families, all proud of their "learning, lineage and practice of austerities" (v. 5). Some of the Brahmaņas who were born of the Pandit families living in the eastern part of this village wanted to live apart and so removed to a neighbouring place called Siyamva(ba) (v. 6). Verse 7 states that two or three of the local Brahmana families were not yet extinct, but continued their sacred learning, were competent enough to remove the doubts of people about the meaning of Śruti and Smriti and remained fixed in the time-honoured rules and precepts of their families. Next we have in vv. 8-18 a sketch of Prahasa's descent. In Siyamba was born a Brahmana, Paśu-pati by name, who was "skilful in the performance of the six duties" (v. 8). His son was Sahila (v. 9), who is stated (v. 10) to have founded an image of Vishnu and excavated a tank in the name of his father and mother respectively. His son was Manōratha (v. 11). Manoratha's son Sucharita begat on Nitula (v. 12), his devoted wife, sprung from a high family, a son named Tapō-nidhi (v. 13), with whom began that glorious record of achievements which was continued by his successors. The most significant of his scholarly distinctions mentioned in v. 14 is that he attained perfection in the doctrines of Kumarila-Bhatta. He begot a son Karttikeya (v. 15), whose scholarship in the Mimamsa philosophy is very highly spoken of in v. 16, where he is also described as having been "famous as the remover of doubts about the meaning of the Smritis." The qualities of his heart are mentioned in v. 17. He married a lady named Kaliparvva or Kaliyavva, who came of a very respectable family. She was the great-granddaughter of a person named Vishnu, granddaughter of Aja-miára, and daughter of Angada (v. 18). Though having many virtuous sons, this lady felt most happy and blessed in getting for a son Prahasa, whose future greatness was indicated by the conjunction of auspicious planets at the time of his birth (v. 19). It is in honour of this Brahmapa that the prasasti was composed. The next two verses (20-21) eulogise him, chiefly for his learning and sense of unfailing justice. His knowledge in the tarka-sastras, tantras, and dharma-sastras was of a very high order, and he possessed such virtues as truthfulness, freedom from avarice, etc. For these reasons he was very highly esteemed by the people and kings of his time. Verse 22 records the most significant fact that Prahasa, even though persistently pressed, refused to accept 900 gold coins in cash and a gift of landed property (sasana) yielding an income of 1,000 coins, from a very powerful king of Kamarupa, named Jayapala-deva. Then an account is given in
1 The land between the river Mahanada on the west, and the Karatoya on the east, now comprising the Districts of Rajshahi, Mälda, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra and part of Pabna-in fact almost the whole of the Rājshāhi Division of the l'engal Presidency.
