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No. 44.]
SIX INSCRIPTIONS IN THE LAHORE MUSEUM.
297
III. Bhatinda Stone Inscription of about the 10th Century A.D. The stone on which this inscription is engraved was found lying at the tomb of Haji Ratan Baba at Bhatinda and was removed and presented by Sardar Atar Singh, Chief of Bhadaur to the Lahore Museum (No. 8 of the list of inscriptions). It is a fragmentary slab of dark grey colour and Was surrounded with an engraved rim ornamented with a pattern of flower petals. The existing portion measures 1' 5%" in width by 1' 69' in height. The stone is complete on three sides but a portion is broken off on the left side carrying away about 8 to 10 syllables of each line. A small triangular portion is also broken off at the lower left corner. A considerable portion of the writing is also badly defaced in the middle of the slab and in some other parts the letters are quite illegible. The characters are Nāgari of about the end of the 10th century A. D. and the whole of the extant portion is in Sanskrit verse. The first stanza contains an invocation of KȚishna (Hari), who with his four hands armed with a mace, the spotless pāñchajanya conch, (etc.) with ease supports the whole of the three worlds and who is ever-lasting. The second verse praises Rājā Satrughnadēva who equalled Lakshmana and Bharata, whose feet were bowed to by the whole world and the dust of whose feet.......... The third verse informs us that at Tribhāndanapura there was (some one) resplendent with gems of virtues, whose glory was spotless like jewels, who was the ornament of a noble Kshatriya family and who had acquired fame throughout the world by his brilliant. .....(His son) (V. 4) was named........because he was the destroyer of the impurity of the Kali age, who was purified by his devotion to ascetics........and who by the constant flow of his liberality resembled the current of the Ganges. The next verse (V. 5) contained the name of his wife which appears to have been Indulēkhā. In the remaining portion of the inscription only stray words or syllables can be made out in each line. Line 14 appears to contain the word mahākavi and in line 16 there is a portion of a foot of a verse in the Vasantatilaka metre which means 'devotion to Hari or Vishnu dispels'.
I am unable to identify the Rāja Satrughnadēva who was ruling over the region, where the inscription had been found, at the time this epigraph was engraved. Tribhāndanapura' mentioned in verse 3 is undoubtedly the original ancient name of Bhatinda where the inscription was discovered. The ruler Satrughnadēva in whose time the inscription was recorded is, as far as I can make out, not known from another inscription. He must have belonged to a local family of Bhatinda. Raverty, quoted by Smith in his Early History of India, 3rd Edition, p. 382, was wrong in making Bhatinda the capital of Jayapāla of the Hindu Shāhi dynasty.
TEXT. 1....--U-UUTETHYnatate foarte
Staf: xfi: 2 u-uu-u---- vefafa Haitu ? [Ru]
जयति जगबतचरणश्चरणरजः श8 ......:[ THGUAĦT ( w eatery p [RI*] reilfa
HTTP[azyê Tu4 [taurat*] --u-u fraca Hait: [1] [w]frufeur
Alwa pufaga: fafa6 [aw*) Vu-u-- [Rus] [et*]: faharaTAT
[TETA] x2u9afatafanya: ["] auf 1 Metre: Vasantatilaka.
* Metre : Arya. • Ono syllable seems to be missing in this pdda.
