Epigraphia Indica Vol 17

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

Page 33

12
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL.XVII.
himself and the Bodhisattva statue of the Kushäņa year 3, in the Sarnath Museum. Bhominåga is first met with in this record,
No. 4.-A VAKATAKA INSCRIPTION FROM GANJ.
BY V S. SUKTHANKAR, PH.D. This inscription, which is now brought to notice for the first time, was discovered by my friend Baba Rakhaldas Banerji, Superintendent, Archeological Survey of India, Western Circle, in 1919, during one of his tours of inspection in Central India. The excellent estampages from which the accompanying blocks have been prepared were made under his direct supervision, and very kindly placed by him at my disposal for publication,
The inscription, Mr. Banerji tells me, is engraved on a detached slab of stone which he found lying at the bottom of a doriga, adjoining a hill called Maluha-tongi near Ganj in the Ajayagadh (Ajaigarh) State in Bundelkhand. Close by is a ruined stone structure, probably dam to hold the waters of the stream passing along the doriga. The find-place of the record is not far removed from the ruined city of Kuthārå, where Cunningham discovered in 1883-84 the N&chand-ki-talât inscription, which was first brought to notice by him, in 1885, in Archøalogical Survey of India, Vol. XXI, pp. 97 f., and re-edited by Fleet in Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 233 ff. and Pl. xxxi B. The Ganj inscription, like the one discovered by Cunningham, is one of the oldest records of the V&kitaka dynasty, and as such is worthy of being carefully preserved.
From the subjoined transcript it will be seen that the text of our inscription is practically identical with that of the Nachane-ki-talãi record of the reign of Maharaja Prithivishona, edited by Fleet in Gupta Inscriptions; it differs from the latter only in the length and the number of lines, and in the spelling of a couple of words. But our inscription is in a much better state of preservation than that edited by Fleet; at all events the stone has yielded an impression far superior to the one from which the block accompanying Fleet's article was prepared. Conse, quently we can study the forms of the letters in the subjoined facsimile much better than in that of the Nåcbanė-ki-talai version. Moreover, the writing of this inscription being perfectly distinct, we can give & transcript which is more reliable, and which at the same time discloses oertain minor inaccuracies in Fleet's transcript, errors which even then could bave been avoided by & more patient study of the available material.
The writing covers a space about 25" broad by 12" high. In the centre of the first line of the inscription there is a sculpture of a wheel, of which only a part is visible in the facsimile. The average size of such letters as m, p and is about 2".-The characters belong to the
southern' variety of alphabets, of which the distinguishing features, in our inscription, are the hooks at the lower ends of the verticals of k and r. In particular, we may say that the letter, are a specimen of the Central Indian alphabet of the period, which on account of the peculiar 'box-headed' tops of the letters is known as the "box-headed' sub-variety of the southern alphabet. In our specimen the boxes are very conspicuous, and uniformly hollow. The letters are unequal in size and unconth in appearance. It may be added that they betray & conscious effort to substitute angles for curves in the configuration of letters. The letters t and are sharply distinguished from each other : the latter has always a knot at its lower end. The language is Sanskrit, and the inscription is in proge.-Ag regards the orthography tho only point calling for remark is the phonetic doubling of the d of dh, in od-a(h)nuddhyatoo (1.2). before y, and of the t of th, before r, in punyd-rttha (1. 3).
Sve Bühler, Indische Palaographie, p. 62,