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No. 39.)
THE JUNAGADH INSCRIPTION OF JIVADAMAN I.
No. 39.-THE JUNAGADH INSCRIPTION OF JIVADAMAN (I).
BY R. D. BANERJI, M.A. The inscription which is edited below for the first time, was discovered by some labourers on the top of the citadel of Junagadh fort during the rainy season of 1919. Mr. 8. Brook-Foz the then Chief Engineer of the Junagadh State, removed the stone slab on which it is written to the State Office building and, sending its inked Impression, informed the Archeological Survey Department of its discovery. It is now deposited in the Bahădur Khān-ji Museum, Junagadh During my visit in the month of October of the same year I read the inscription from the stone and took its estampages for publication.
The record is incised on a heavy slab of stone, the inscribed surface of which measures 31 inches by 10 inches. At present, it consists of two short lines mutilated both at the beginning and at the end. The first line begins with the word kshatrapasya and ends with the numerical symbol for 100. The second line begins with a proper name and ends with the word putra. The length of each of these two lines is 30' and the average height of the letters is 21. Judging, however, from their contents it would appear that originally these lines were considerably longer. The slab bearing the inscription must have been used for building purposes. It was found with its face turned downwards in the debris of an old structure. When I saw it in the State Office at Junāgadh, the letters were full of plaster or mortar made of powdered bricks (soorkhi) and lime. Possibly, there were several other lines below the second one which were mutilated when the stone was broken up to suit the requirements of the mason.
The characters of the inscription are of the usual type used in Western India in the second century A.D. and skin to the alphabet in which the Andhau inscriptions of Rudradāman I are written. The lower parts of ka and a curve to the left. The three verticals of ya are almost equal in height and all instances of the subscript form of this letter are tripartite. Va and the lower part of ma are rather triangular. Both the verticals of pa are of equal height. In the only extant symbol of the palatal sa the pendant drops from the right half of the curve instead of from the left, while the angularity is not quite marked. In the letter sha the cross bar is joined to the right vertical straight line and not to the left as usual in one case, s.e., in kshatrapasya, while in the other, i.e., in varshe, it seems to join both the verticals.
The inscription is written in Sanskrit prose. The object of it, however, is not clear on scoount of its mutilated state. The portion giving the date is unfortunately damaged and nothing is legible at the end of the first line, except the symbol for 100. The record refers itself to the reign of Jivadāman whose exact rank cannot be now ascertained because the portion of the slab, where his titles were in all probability written, is now missing. That he was . Kshatrapa is certain as that title is prefixed to his name. Two Jivadāmans are known to have had any connection with Kāthiāwār. The first prince of that name was the son of Damajadahrt I and the grandson of Rudradāman I, who is known from his coins to have ruled in Käthidwar from the year 100 to 118 or 119 of the Saka era. The second prince of that name is Svāmi Jivadāman, known to us from the coins of his son, Kshatrapa Rudrasimha II, who was ruling in Saka 227 and seems to have succeeded to the throne on the extinction of the direct descendants of Chashtana or of the Mahākshatrapa Rudrasittha I. On paleographic grounds, I am of opinion that the inscription under examination pertains to the reign of the Mahākghatrapa Jivadāman I. The second line of this record contains four proper names [Va]stradatta, Västunandika, Vastusarmmaka and Ramaka. The last word of
