Epigraphia Indica Vol 16

Author(s): F W Thomas, H Krishna Sastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 43

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVI.
originals. Last time I had not sufficient time to make these transcripts, and had to content myself with very brief account, indeed, of them.". In another part of the same report Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar published short summaries of the contents of these inscriptions. I visited Cutch in April 1919 and had the good fortune to transcribe all the records from the originals. Though they are in varying stages of imperfect preservation, I found that, with the exception of one, they yielded tolerably good impressions, which are reproduced with this article.
In all there are six stone inscriptions in the Fergusson Museum at Bhuj, of which five are records of the second dynasty of the Satraps of Saurashtra, i.e. of the family of Chashtana, and the remaining one a fragment of an inscription of the fifth and sixth century A.D. Four of the inscriptions belong to the reign of Rudradaman and were incised in the year 52 of the era used in the inscriptions and coins of the Satraps of Saurashtra, while the fifth belongs to the reign of the Maha-Kshatrapa Rudrasimha I, and was incised in the year 114 of the same era. The fifth inscription of the time of Rudradi man, mentioned by Mr. Bhandarkar in the last lines of paragraph 15, Part II (6), of his Annual Report for the year 1914-15, appears to be still in situ.
The inscriptions of the time of Rudradāman of the year 52 which are here edited are those which were brought to Bhuj from Andhan by the late Ranchhodbhai Udairam, formerly Dewan of Cutch. These inseriptions repose on a number of wooden platforms and have been placed under the grand staircase of the Fergusson Museum at Bhuj. Mr. Bhandarkar has recently referred to them in a note on his article on "Deccan of the Satavahana period."
Andhau, or Andhou, is a very small village close to Khevda, or Pachham, in the Cuteh State. It is situated in Lat. 23° 46' 10", Long. 69° 53' 55". The site where the records were discovered is described by Mr. Bhandarkar as a hillock. Mr. K. N. Dikshit of the Archeological Survey is the only trained archæologist who seems to have visited the site; but no notes or description have been published by him as yet.
The records are incised on long narrow slabs of stone, and in the majority of cases the inscriptions are incised lengthwise. The material is hard stone, which has suffered very much from corrosion with a singular effect. In certain cases the bottoms of incisions made by the mason while chiselling the record remain intact on the stone, whereas the sides of the incision and the surrounding uninscribed portions of the stone have disappeared. The effect produced by this action is to make one believe at first sight that some letters of one record were cut in relief, while the rest were incised. The inscribed surfaces of the stones are uneven, and it is apparent that the mason did not take the trouble to make them smooth before incising the letters.
All four inscriptions refer themselves to the reign of the king (Rajan) Rudradáman, son of Jayadáman. His name is immediately preceded by that of his grandfather Chashtana, son of Ysmotika; but no term indicating the relationship between Rudradáman and Chashtana in employed in any of the four records. All the records were incised on the same date, i.e. the year 52, the second day of the dark half of Phaguna (Phalguna). In three out of the four in, scriptions the year of the date is expressed both in words and in figures, while in the fourth it is given in figures only. The day of the month is in all four expressed both in words and in figures consisting of two symbols. The first symbola has been read by Prof. Lüders as 18. So far the symbol for 15 has not been met with in published inscriptions or MSS. of this period; but Dr. Lüders may have found it in one of the Khotan MSS. The symbol consists of the aksharu ra, from the upper part of which a horizontal straight line is produced towards the right for a short distance. From the right extremity of this another straight line, vertical and longer than t'u, is produced downwards. This symbol looks very much like the proto-Nagari consonant ga.
Ibid, 1911-15, p. 8.
2 I'rof. D. R. Bhandarkar of the University of Calcatta has accepted Dr. Lüders' reading of this symbol in foot-oue to his article on the "Satavahan periol "; 1.4., Vol. XLVII, p. 184, n. 36.