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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XIX.
The Khan Bahadur further states that the glen itself reminds one strongly of the locality and environs of Zaur Dheri across and beyond the Agror valley, where a stupa of Kushān date is said to exist, which has been referred to in the Annual Report of the Frontier Cirole for 1922-23.1 The inscriptions have also been noticed in the Epigraphical Summary in the Annual Report of the Archæological Survey, 1924-26, but I have not seen this notice
We do not know much about the history of the district in ancient times. It belonged to the kingdom of Urasā or Uraśā, which is mentioned in the ganas to Pāṇini IV-11-82 and IV-ii-93, and in the Rajatarangini (V. 217 etc.) and has been identified with Ap oa or Ovapoa, the name given by Ptolemy VII-1-45 to the country between the Vitastā and the Indus. Hüan Tsang mentions the country under the name of Wu-la-shi. In his days it was tributary to Kashmir.
Ptolemy mentions ISáyoupos as one of the cities of the "Apora territory, and Sir Aurel Stein has shown that 'Isayovpos can very well be a rendering of a Prākpit form Aityugura, which he identifies with Atyugrapura, mentioned in Kalhana's Rājatarangini VIII. 3402 as conquered by the Kashmirian King Jayasimha (A.D. 1128-49) in a war against Dvitiya, the Uraśā. Atyugrapura, Sir Aurel further identifies with the present Agror.
We may infer from this that the Agror valley has played some rôle in the history of Hazāra, and that some centre existed in the neighbourhood of Shahdaur. In later times Oghi was the residence of the Khan of Agror.
A.
The inscription on the northern side of the rock consists of two lines. The first extends over 6' 2" and contains aksharas varying in size from 3 to 4", the second is 1'9" long and the size of the aksharas is 2 to 3}".
Of individual letters we may note the cha at the end of l. 1, which has almost the same shape as in the Sihila vase inscription; the well-shaped and angular dh in vadha, 1. 1, and the distinct prolongation of the lower vertical of sa, upwards and towards the left, at the point of juncture with the upper portion of the akshara, just as in the Patika plate. On the whole there cannot be any doubt that the inscription belongs, palæographically, to the Saka period.
The first akshara is evidently ra, though the upper portion is somewhat damaged. The second seems to be ja. There is an apparent cross-bar, which is, however, so thin that I take it to be a crack in the stone. There are, further, two apparent strokes protruding from the bottom, which might be taken to be remnants of an u-loop. But I do not think that they are anything else than fissures in the stone. The third letter is na, and I think that I can see traces of an o-mātrā. I therefore read rajano, Skr. rajñaḥ.
Then comes a word which I read namijadasa and explain as the genitive of a name Namijada. There is apparently a curve above the vertical which I take to be the i-mātrā, in the second akshara, and one might think of ga. The top of the vertical is, however, straight, and the reading mi seems to be preferable.
The next three aksharas seem to be sakasa. The top of ka is damaged, and the unevenness of the stone has resulted in an apparent bar between the two legs of the akshara, but the reading seems to be certain. Then follows an akshara which may be la or a blurred ba. With every reserve I read ba.
The following letter is certainly so, but it is placed much lower than the surrounding aksharas, and the left vertical is prolonged upwards. There are, moreover, traces of lines above the horizontal, and it seems possible that we have before us the compound tša, of the same shape as in
1 Annual Report of the Archeological Survey of India, 1922-23, p. 96. * [See ibid, 1924-25, pp. 116 and 119. Ed.] * See his translation of the Rājalarangiai II, pp. 207 and 434.