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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
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verges 23-26 of the pious works which Prabása performed and which occasioned the writing of this prasasti. In order to be free from the debts which he owes to his parents (v. 23). Prahasa, after having repaired two temples in the village, dedicated an image of Trivikrama and excavated a tank for the religious merit of his father and mother (v. 24). Then at the place where the stone inscription was set up he erected "a white temple of great height", surmounted by a most picturesque crest, and with all the customary divisions into compartments, in which he established according to rites the image of Amara-nātha (v. 25). He is praised as having built an alms-house also, and having laid out in Siyamba a garden for the deity, and having set apart, at a place named Sirisha-punja, a tract of land measuring seven drānas for the provision of the daily pujā, eto. of the god (v. 26). After having completed his 50th year Prahaga appointed his song to succeed to all household affairs and himself retired to the edge of the river Ganges (v. 27). The poet then eulogises his own composition on the score of spontaneity in verses which with great literary acuteness hit the mark of genuine as opposed to artificial poetry (v. 28). Lastly, in v. 29, the engraver Somēsvara, a Magadhan artist, is mentioned in high terms as having bestowed great attention in incising the letters on the stone.
The inscription is not dated, nor does it contain the poet's name.
In connection with our inscription three questions may here be discussed at some length :-(1) What is the locality of the Srāvasti mentioned in verse 2? (2) Was there any necessity at all for the half-mythical king Adi-sara of Bengal to import learned Brāhmaças from Kanaaj or any other part of the Madhyadesa ? (3) With whom is Jaya-pāla, the king of Kāmarāpa mentioned in verse 22, to be identified ?
It is stated in vorso 2 that the family of Brāhmanas to which Prahasa traces his descent had its residence at a place called Tarkāri, which lay within the limits of Srāvasti. Again, from verse 4 we find that the village Bāla-grāma, described as being prasūta (derived) from this Tarkari of Sråvasti, was also situated in the land of Varēndri in Pundra (North Bengal). The poet, perhaps, means to say that this newly established village, as the name Bala-grāma also suggests, was colonised by people coming from Tarkāri of Srāvasti, which seems to have been a neighbouring place. The locality intervening between these two places, viz. SrävastiTarkari and Varöndri-Balagrāma, is named Sakați, which sounds like the name of a river. From the meaning appropriately to be assigned to verse 4 one feels inclined to presume the existence of a town of the name of Srävasti in North Bengal (Gauda). In support of this presumption passages from some of the Puranas, mentioning that there was such a town of the name of Sråvasti in the country of Gauda, may be pointed out. The Matsya-Purāna has the following line in verse 30 Chapter XII :
nirmitā yöna Srāvasti Gauda-dēļē dvijöttamäh. The Kūrma-Purana also has a line to the same effect, in Chapter XX (Bibl. Ind., p. 221).
Nirmita yềna Sävastihi Gauda.dēše maha-puri. This Sravasti is said to have been built by a king, named Srāvasti, the son of Yavanisva of the Solar race. Its foundation reaches, therefore, to an age far anterior to Rama and Lava. Bat in the last book of the Rāmāyana, we find mentioned the name of another Srāvasti, founded by Rama; as the capital of his son Lava. The Vāyu-Purāna also states that Lava's capital was the city Srāvasti in Uttara-Kosala. So from Pauranic literature and the last book of the Ramayana, which is a Jater addition, we may infer the existence of two towns of the name of
1 Śrävastira according to MS. B. * Uttara-Kända, Chap. 121 (108 in the edition of Bombay, 1888), v. 5.
