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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VoL XXIV.
No. 44.--FIRST AND THIRD SLABS OF KUMBHALGARH INSCRIPTION: V. S. 1517
BY SAM SKRITI PT. AKSHAYA KEERTY VYĀS, M.A., UDAIPUR The inscription under description was briefly noticed for the first time by Rai Bahadur Gaurishankar Ojha in the Annual Report, Rajputana Museum, Ajmer, for the year 1925-26. It seems to have originally been engraved on five big slabs of stone of which the fifth or the last slab has not yet been discovered. Of the second slab, only a very small piece has been found containing the words Dvitiya-pațfikā on the top to ensure its being a part of that slab. Of the remaining three slabs, the fourth one (which is the best preserved of whatever has so far been found of this inscription) has already been published by R. R. Halder of the Rajputana Muscum, Ajmer. I now take up here, at the instance of Dr. N. P. Chakravarti, Government Epigraphist for India, the first and the third slabs for edition. Both these slabs were discovered only in fragments and are, therefore, in a very damaged condition. All that has till now been discovered is deposited for preservation in the Victoria Hall Museum at Udaipur.
The inscription belongs to a temple built by Mahārāṇā Kumbhakarna on the fort of Kumbhalgarh, originally called the Kumbhasvāmin temple but now known as that of Mamădēva. The first slab is 3' 10" broad by 3' 7" high with a margin of about 2" on all sides, and contains sixty-eight verses (1-68) with short sentences in prose in fifty lines of writing; and the third slab is 3' 1" by 3' 6" with a margin of about 1}" on all sides containing fifty-nine verses (121-179) with some small prose sentences in forty-nine written lines. Unfortunately the slabs are very much damaged and some of the important portions of their contents have altogether been destroyed.
The characters are Nägari and the medial vowels ē, ai, 0, and au which are joined to the consonants are represented by both siro- and prishtha-mātrās. The letters are nicely cut and are on the average about two-fifths of an inch.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit and the composition is, on the whole, free from errors. In the first slab, however, we find sandhi not observed in sri Ekalinga-prabhuh (1.7) and pralaya-kpit-yo (1. 41); and in the third slab in or=abhūt=øri-Jaitra (1. 27). In yadeakāri Mokala-ngipah (11. 29-30, slab I) the error of syntax is obvious. Besides, there are some other minor mistakes chiefly pertaining to engraving which are noticed in dealing with the text.
Regarding orthography we find that t' and bare usually distinguished, the exceptions being Vāghēlāva-varnnanam (11. 28 and 31, slab I) and -Amrāprasāda- (11. 19 and 20. slab III). The dental sibilant is used for the palatal one in samsprisamty=api (1. 20) and sad-dhairya-saurya- (1. 39) of the first and the third slabs respectively. The sound of sh is twice represented in the first slab by the sign for kh, e.g., in -sarramkakhaḥ (1. 47) and kalukh-ādayo ya[ n*1 (1.50). This seems to be based on the analogy of the representation of the sound of th by the sign for sh in many of the inscriptions of this period in Rājputāna. The following other features are also to be noticed the examples for which are here drawn from the first slab only. nusevira is throughout used for nasals. Ņ is almost invariably reduplicated after a superscript by drawing a horizontal stroke across the body of the letter : other consonants are very often doubled, e.g., srarggaPrayāga- (1.12), muktir-jjanair (1. 13), r=rrirair=ddānara- (1. 16), etc., as against wi-rarair= gita (1. 35), garva-sarvamkakh(sh)ah (1. 47). etc. Jihrāmiliya and wpadhmaniya are sometimes lised and represented by a sign which here resembles the sign for sh as in ritamayel halu
Abovo, Vol. XXI, pp. 277-288.
