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120
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXII
59 anityäny=sigvaryyäny(ny)=astha(sthi)ram mānushyaṁ sāmānyañ=cha bhūmi-dāna
phalam=avagachchhadbhir-ayam-asmad-[d*] āyā=numantavyah paripālayitavyas=
ch=ēty=uktañ-chall Bahubhir=vvasudhā bhuktā rājabhi[h*Sagar-idibhiḥ[1 *] 60 yasya yasya yada bhūmis-tasya tasya ta[dā*] phala[m*0 Yanriha dāridrya-bhayan=
narēndraireddhanani dharmm-ayatanikțitāni[l*] nir[b]bhukta-mälya-pratimäni : tāni ko nāma sădhuḥ punar=ādadita[ll*) Shashti(shtim) 61 Varsha-sahasrāņi gvarggě tishţhati bhūmida[:*] achchhēttä сh=anumantä сhah(cha)
täny=ēva narakë vasēt || Dūtako=tra Rājaputra-Kharagrahah|ll"] 62 Likhitam-idam Sandhivigrahādhikțita-Divirapati Mabāpratihāra-Sāmanta-Mammakēn=
ēti | Sam 300 50 7 dvi-Pausha ba 4 [II*l Svahasto mama l
No. 20.-THE BAYANA INSCRIPTION OF CHITTRALEKHA: V. S. 1012.
BY THE LATE PROF. R. D. BANERJI, M.A. This inscription, which is being edited for the first time, was discovered by Carlleyle, one of the Assistants of the late Sir Alexander Cunningham, at Bayānā in the Bharatpur State. This place (lat. 77° 21' E., long. 26° 54') is now a junction on the broad gauge main line of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway. It was a place of great importance in mediæval times and for some time was made the Imperial capital by Islam Shāh son of Sher Shah I. When Mr. Carlleyle saw this inscription for the first time, it was lying under one of the stone pillars of the balcony which surrounds the courtyard of the Ukhā Mandir at Bayānā. This Mandir is a late structure built about a century ago by a Thakur of the Bharatpur State, by converting a portion of the Masjid built in 720 A. H. by Sultan Qutbuddin Mubarak Shāh of the Khilji dynasty of Delhi. The inscription was found in the same position in 1885 by Fleet, and was referred to by him in his article on the Bayānā inscription of Vijayādhirāja dated V. 8. 1100. It continued there till I visited Bayana in 1918, when at my request Mr. C. C. Watson, I.C.S., C.L.E., then Political Agent for the Eastern Rajputana States, asked the Bharatpur Durbar to have the slab removed and it has since been placed in the compound of the Ukhā Mandir. The inscription is incised on a thick slab of yellow sandstone, quite different from the red sandstone used in the construction of the Ukha Masjid or the Ukhā Mandir and almost of all the ancient monuments at Bayană. The upper left corner of the inscription is broken and the letters on one-eighth of the entire slab towards the right have flaked off. With the exception of these two parts the rest of the record is in a tolerably good state of preservation. The flaking off of the right side of the slab makes all the lines incomplete and therefore difficult to decipher. The breaking off of the upper left eorner has made the beginning of the first five lines incomplete ; out of these lines again, the first three have lost more letters than the fourth and the fifth which have lost only ten and four syllables approximately.
The inscribed surface measures 3' 6" 1' 9" and the average height of letters is it". The slab bears twenty-five lines of writing which on the whole is very neatly done. As regards palacography, in many cases, the anusvāra is enclosed within a circle (cf. jagatām 1.4), while in other cases it is a plain dot (cf. vanéasya 1. 4). A peculiar form of tha is noticeable in lokanathah (1.7) where the upper part of the upper loop is open, which is usually closed in other instances, As for example, in prathitah (. 18) or prithu (L 22). The initial form of the short i is
* Cunningham, A. 9. R., Vol. VI, p. 50. 1 Ibid. Vol. XX, p. 72. Ind, Ant., Vol. XIV, pp. 9-14
