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358
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVII.
The second couplet has been much injured towards the end by the erosion of the stone, and the several letters could with difficulty be recognized.
The inscription is in verse throughout, and consists of two couplets. The language is correct Sanskrit, with only a single exception, which is perhaps an engraver's mistake. The Wetters belong to the Kutila variety, current in Bengal in the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries The inscription is not dated; but paleographical considerations would not possibly allow of an earlier date than the early part of the 13th century A.D. It records the installation of an image of the lord Vishņu by one Vangoka, great-grandson of Saurišarman, grandson of Pitamaha and the offspring of the couple Sayoga and Anuyami.
The absence of a royal name in a pretty long inscription is rather remarkable, though by no means uncommc It may suggest that the inscription belongs to a period when there was no king worth the name to refer to at the time of the installation of the image. There is anothet fact which confirms this supposition. The Brähmaņa family to which Vangoka belonged is spoken of as hailing from some place in Varēndri, i.e. north Bengal. They must have migrated to Vanga, which included the pargana of Vikramapura, the region where the image was found, not long before the installation of the statue, as the fact of their descent from a stock of Varondri was, in Vangoka's estimation, still of sufficient distinction to merit a special mention. The name Vangoka is also significant. In a family where the first three of the line are named in pure Sanskrit after the sacred names of gods, the naming of the fourth member after the name of a country signifies that he was born just after the family had migrated into that country, and the migration was an important event in the family history.
The period at the end of the 12th century A.D. which necessitated the migration of Váröndri Brühmapas from north to east Bengal must have been the time when Lakshmanasēna was worsted by Muhammad-bin-Bakhtyar, about 1200 A.D., and the old king and his court fled to Vikramapura. Muhammad established his court at Deb-kot, 14 miles south of Dinajpur, in the heart of Varēndri, and orthodox Brahmaņas must have had a rather hot time of it, necessitating flight to the Vanga country, where the Sēnas still had sway. The history of the reign of the sons of Lakshmaņasēna is very imperfectly known; but erasures of royal names on their copper-plates suggest fratricidal war and consequent anarchy, and the present inscription may well belong to this troublous period.
TEXT.
1 [fafcend WHITUÀIA PEITEHT fay: [] 2 artan i fagfá **** [w] 3 atacatoa ufow40 [] fuata. 4 au luat fra
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TRANSLATION
ay success attend ! Longing for residence in the heaven of Vishnu, this image of) the Lord Vishna was consecrated by Vangoka, hailing from [the village of] Tataka in Varindri, offayring of the body of Bayogs and (hegotten on) Anuyami, in the race of the Saint) Sandilya. grandson of Pitamaba and great-grandson of Surigarman.
I should put it on record here that the mistance of my friend Prof Radhagorinda Bisak, X.A, of very great we to wo in obtaining correct decipherment and interpretation of the inscription.
* Exiprested by a symbol
