Epigraphia Indica Vol 20

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

Page 97

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. XX.
reference to currency. The term did not refer to silver currency alone but to other metals also, as we find the term tāmra-rupa in the Arthaśāstra.
10. Gananā.-This term occurs in the Arthasastra and has been translated as Accountancy. An entire chapter has been devoted to it there and the subject is explained in detail. It is oertain that this term could not have been used for elementary mathematics in this inscription as supposed by Bühler. Knowledge of lēkha, rūpa, and gananā is here coupled with that of law and learning and refers to a post-boyhood period.
11. Vavahāra.-Vyavahāra meaning Civil Law or Municipal Law us opposed to
12. Vidhi or Religious Law which is mentioned in Sanskrit legal literature as positive injunctions.
13. Yovarajan Yauvarajyam.--Yövarajam shows the shortening of the internal medial vowel in the second member and the graphic lightening of double consonant, as in the case of Māhārājao (1.3), rañi (1. 15), etc.
14. vadhamana-serayo.-Though the incision of these two words is perfectly clear they cannot be satisfactorily explained by us. The equation vardhamana-sai savo is not quite satisfactory as a change of v into y is not to be had anywhere else in this record. The meaning proposed in the translation is adopted for want of a better one. There may be a pun intended by the use of the word vadhamana which is the early narre of the last Tirthankara. The verb pāpunāti=prāpnóti shows that the sentence is in the active voice and complete by itself. After this line the forms are generally causative.
15. Ven-ābhivijayo.-The reading is perfectly clear. The ancient monarch Vēna, father of Prithu, was an unorthodox king according to Brāhmanical literature. According to the Padma-Purāna he began his reign well but subsequently became a Jaina. He abolished the law of levirate (niyoga) and caused a confusion or abolition of castes, according to Manu. Vëna was a great conqueror and therefore the term abhivijaya is very appropriate in his case. Evidently the tradition recorded in the Padma-Purāna was well-established in the time of Khāravela and therefore the Jaina monarch is compared to Vēna.
16. Kaliga-rāja-va[]se.--In the third line the details about Khāravela's ancestry are made clear. . He was born in the royal line of Chēti and was the overlord of Kalinga, but the dynasty to which he belonged was the 3rd dynasty of the kings of Kalinga. This dynasty was one of the
Aila dynasties settled in Central and Southern India. The name Khāravela (probably, one whose waves are brackish'=the Ocean) is unusual, and so is the name of the other king of the dynasty, viz., Kūdepa (Mañchapuri inscription). Khāravela is described to be an Aila or Aida, that is, of the Lunar House as opposed to the Solar. Pargiter holds that the kings of the Aija stock held the Ganges and the Jumna valleys from the Siwālik Hills to Magadha, the country between the Rājputāna desert and the Berār, with the Pañjāb and Peshawar in the north and East Bibār and Bengal proper in the east. The town and country of Vidarbha is generally recognised to be the modern Berār.
17. Māhārāj-abhisechanam.-The regular abhisheka of a Chakravartin Monarch (called the Aindra-mahābhisheka in the Satapatha and Aitareya Brāhmaṇas).'
18. Padhame.--In this dialect tha becomes dha in the majority of cases, e.g., Goradha Goratha, raha=rutha, Bharadhavasa=Bharathavasa and Madhuram for Mathuram. The change is well-known and probably it is an influence of Dravidian origin.
1 Text p. 84, Engl. trans., p. 95. (Dr. Shamasastry's edition.) • Manavalharmasastra, Cb. IX, vv. 66-67.
Jayaswal, Hindu Polity, Pt. ii, p. 27. This peculiarity is found in Jaina-Saurasoni, Saurasēni, Magadhi and Dhakki. Soe Pischel, Gramma.lt der Prakrit Sprachen, para. 203.--Ed.)