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No. 13.]
REWAH STONE INSCRIPTION OF KARNA: [CHEDI] YEAR 800.
101
the god, was on this day made over as tiruvidaiyattam to Dhanvantari-Emberuman after due intimation to Perumā! (Ranganatha). And it was stipulated that this two veli (of land) was to be utilised, as long as the moon and sun last, for providing worship to Dhanvantari-Emberumāṇ and for kudinir-offering (to Perumal), under the supervision of Garuḍavahana-Bhaṭṭa and in his lineal succession of son and grandson.
Those that contemplate evil to this charity shall incur the sin of having killed tawny cows on the banks of the Ganges.
Be it well!
No. 13.-REWAH STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF KARNA: THE [CHEDI] YEAR 800.
BY PROF. V. V. MIRASHI, M.A., NAGPUR.
This inscription was discovered by Dr. N. P. Chakravarti, Government Epigraphist, at Rewah in 1936. The slab, on which it is inscribed, is now lying in the guard hall of the old palace at Rewah. It is said to have been previously built into a wall of the Zenana Mahal of the same palace, from where it was removed a few years back and preserved in its present place. I edit the inscription here from two excellent impressions kindly supplied by the Government Epigraphist.
The record is incised on a large slab. The inscribed surface measures 7'-2" in breadth and 3-11" in height. As shown below, the inscription was originally put up at a temple of Siva and seems to have been brought over to Rewah from somewhere else. The record has suffered considerably on the right and left hand sides and especially in the lower portion comprising lines 23-31, in which in some places only a word here and there can be read with confidence. Even in other parts, where it is better preserved, the mäträs, the anusvära, the sign for the superscript r on the top of letters and the horizontal stroke in the body of sh have in many cases disappeared. The inscription consists of thirty-one lines and falls into two parts which are separated by an ornamental figure in 1. 19. Except for the obeisance to Siva with which it seems to have opened and a few words recording the date at the end, the whole record is in verse. The first part of it, which eulogizes the reigning Kalachuri king Karna and his ancestors, comprises thirty-three verses. As many as twenty-one of these occur in the Goharwa plates of that king. In many cases, therefore, the damaged letters of the present inscription can be easily supplied from the latter record. The second part, comprising verses 34-59, contained a legendary account of the origin of the Kayastha caste as well as the genealogy of the minister of Karna, who founded the temple of Siva at which the present inscription was set up. The mutilation of a considerable portion of the record in this part is very much to be regretted as none of the damaged verses are known to occur anywhere else. We have consequently lost not only an account of the achievements of the minister and his ancestors, but, except in one case, even the names of all of them. Besides, the present record, had it not been so badly mutilated, would have thrown much welcome light on the notions current in the eleventh century A. D. about the caste of the Kayasthas, which has latterly become a subject of keen controversy. As shown below, the mutilated condition of the present record makes its evidence doubtful.
1 This means that the formal permission of the god was obtained for the transaction.
In his report for 1935-36 the Government Epigraphist has conjectured that the slab might have been 'brought from Gurgi like so many other inscriptions and statues which are now kept in the State Treasury or in -the compound of the Prince's Palace'. (A. S. R. for 1935-36, p. 89.)
Above, Vol. XI, pp. 142 ff.
