________________
No. 37.]
INSCRIPTION ON A VISHNU IMAGE FROM DEOPANI.
329
No. XIII. An inscribed piece of stone found near the caves.
TEXT. .... [khe]ga Šēga (1) putrasa
Remark. (1) These two letters forming a proper name are not quite clear. The outline of the first is misleading, but careful scrutiny of relief on reverse of the impression leads me to think that it is either sëorgë' while the second appears to be 'ga'; the accretion of an altogether new outline proceeding from its top along the left being merely a development of the crack in stone.
TRANSLATION Of.. Kha the son of Śēga ?
No. 37.-INSCRIPTION ON A VISHNU IMAGE FROM DEOPANI.
By K. N. Dikshit, M.A. This inscription of four lines occurs on the side of a stone image of Vishnu, which was found, along with another partially broken and obliterated image of Durgā, in the jungle close to the Deopani river (Sibsägar District, Assam) between the 26th and 27th miles on the Golaghat-Dimapur road. As the locality is frequented by wild elephants, to whom the present damaged condition of the images is due, the Vishnu image has been removed by me to Gauhāti and deposited for safe custody in the rooms of the Kämrūp Anusandhān Samiti. The place was visited by Dr. Bloch in 1904-05, who describes the image as follows in the Annual Report of the Eastern Circle - The second or smaller image 2 feet 6 inches high is & standing Vishņu or Näräyana with two hands only (the other two hands on the proper right have been lost) wearing the usual crown and having the Srivatsa mark on his breast. On the left outer face is an inscription in four lines, the end of which is broken. The broken piece could not be found.' About the inscription, he further writes :
The inscription consists of three verses of Sanskrit poetry, evidently full of orthographical and grammatical blunders and for this reason difficult to read. The first two verses seem to be in honour of Siva and the third refers to the putting up of a statue of Nārāyana by some person whose name was on the missing piece of stone. It is of no historical interest. Judging from the characters, it belongs to about the 12th century A.D.' As Dr. Bloch's estimate of the age of the inscription is rather wide of the mark, sufficient attention was not drawn to the importance of this image. The characters are similar to the inscription of Harjjara on a rock on the bank of the Brahmaputra near Tezpur, which is dated in the year 510 of the Gupta Era. The present inscription can be safely attributed to the 9th century A.D. on palæographical grounds, and as the statue is the only early example of an inscribed image yet known in Upper Assam, it is a landmark in the history of Art in Assam. On grounds of style and execution, the image could easily have been ascribed to the late Gupta or early Päla period in Bengal. Attention may be drawn to the thick lower lip, the expression of the face, the ear-ornament, the band around the crown, the Brahmanical thread and the close-fitting garment, the style of the Gadā and the Vanamālā, and the Kaustubha and Srivatsa symbols, which are all indications of an earlier age not far removed from the late Gupta period. It is worthy of note that the position of Deopani is intermediate between Dimapur and Kasoioari Pathar where still exist the remains of the peculiar culture associated with the Kicharis in the shape of monoliths described as "sword-blade,' chess-man,' V-shaped' and buffalo-borned ' columns.
