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100
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVIII.
The important points to pote in the matter of orthography have been already mentioned by Pandit Hirananda in A. S. R. for 1903-04 pp. 277 ff.
The use of dental nasals instead of anusvára, e.g. in hinéran (v. 3), and in vante (v. 4); the different spellings of the same proper name as in Pratihāra (v. 3) and Pratihara (v. 4) : and the change of the visarga followed by , into that letter, e.g. in yasy-aitas-sampadas-cha (v. 6), ostais-samuchita-charitaih (v. 12), and upāyais-sampadan (v. 13) may be noticed.
The characters of the inscription are of the Nagari type current in Northern and Western India during the ninth century A.D. Pandit Hirananda remarks that they resemble most closely those of the Pebevå grant of Mahondra-Pála. But a close examination of the two records shows that the letters 1, 5, , th, dh, 1, m, 1, and 6 of our inscription are different from those employed in the Pehevå grant. As a matter of fact, the only published inscription to which our record shows the closest resemblance is the Gwalior inscription of Bhoja of the year 933. The only noticeable difference between the two records is to be found in the new forms of bh and é used in the latter, in addition to those employed in our inscription. The close resemblance between these two records is only quite natural as both come from the same locality, and belong to the same reign.
It may be noted that the new forms of bh and i which we find in the Gwalior inscription of the year 933 along with those in our record, have alone been used in all the later inscriptions of the dynasty, of which facsimiles are available, with the single exception of the Pehevā grant of Mahēndra-Pala. On the other hand, only the forms used in our record are found in the Buchkală inscription of Nagabhata, dated V.S. 872, the only known record of the dynasty before the time of king Bhoja. It may thus be presumed that the record is earlier than 933 V. S., although much stress should not be laid on this conclusion in view of the recurrence of the forms in the Pehevä grant.
The inscription records the erection of a house in his seraglio, by the Gurjara-Pratihāra king Bhöja in honour of Vishnu, and begins with an invocation to that God. Verse 2 describes the creation of the Sun and names some important kings born in the solar race. Verse 3 refers to Rama and his terrible fight with Răvapa. The family to which Bhoja belonged is traced from Lakshmana, the younger brother of Råma (v. 3). The genealogy of the family, as furnished by this inscription, may be explained by the following tablet :
Lakshmana of the
Solar race.
I. Någabhata I.
An unnamed brother.
II. Kakkuks
or Kākutatha.
III. Dévarija. IV. Vatsarāja. V. Någabhata II.
VI. Rāma.
VII. Bhöja (alias
Mihira).
Cl. the plate, above, Vol. I, p. 244. * Ibid, p. 160. . Ahovs, Vol. IX, p. 198. • Some of these kings bu also other appellations ; C, the genealogical tablo above, Vol. XIV, p. 179.
