Epigraphia Indica Vol 19

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 18

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
VOLUME XIX.
No. 1.--THE ZEDA INSCRIPTION OF THE YEAR 11.
BY STEN KONOW.
Zeda is a village near Und (Ohind) in the North-West Frontier Province, situated in 34° 3 N. and 72° 32' E. Here I. Loewenthal noticed "an unshapen piece of rock lying at the entrance of the village", on which there was an inscription in Kharoshthi characters.
The stone, which is now in the Lahore Museum, is, according to Cunningham, a rough block of quartz, 4 feet long and 1 foot broad. The inscription has been edited by Messrs. Cunningham, Senart, and Boyer, and some remarks concerning its date and interpretation have been published by Messrs. E. Thomas, G. Bühler, R. D. Banerji,' H. Lüders and myself.
I now edit it from estampages kindly placed at my disposal by Dr. F. W. Thomas.
The inscription consists of three lines and covers & space 2 feet long and about 8 inches broad. The size of individual letters varies from almost 4 inches in the beginning to 1 to 11 inches towards the end. M. Senart thought that 11. 1 and 2 are perhaps incomplete, but such does not seem to be the case.
The stone is very rough and the inscribed portion is damaged in several places. The reading and interpretation are therefore beset with considerable difficulty, and this difficulty is increased because the shape of individual characters is not consistent. In spite of all the care and ingenuity which has been bestowed on the record, it has not, therefore, been possible to read and explain every passage with certainty, and I have not been able to arrive at satisfactory results throughout, and I sincerely hope that the new plate may induce other scholars to examine the record and publish their remarks so that they can be utilized for the final edition in the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum.
The characters are of the same kind as in contemporary inscriptions. I may mention some details with regard to individual letters.
* cf. his remarks, J. A. 8. B., XXXII, 1863, p. 5.
Archeological Survey of India, V, pp. 57 f. and Plate XVI, 1. *Journal Asiatique, VIII, xv, 1890, pp. 135 ff. and Plate opposite p. 139. Journal Asiatique, X, ili, 1904, pp. 465 ff.
J R. A. 8., N. S., IX, 1877, p. 91. .J. R. A. 8., 1894, p. 535.
Ind. Ant., XXXVII, 1908, pp. 46, 72. 8 tz unga erichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (henceforth quoted as 8 B. 1. W.), 1912, p. 826.
8. B. 4. W., 1916, pp. 801, 806 ; Ostasiatiske Zeitechrift, VIII, p. 280 ; above Vol XIV, p. 132.