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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXVI.
anything of artistic interest. This temple of Pārsvanātha with the reservoir and the orchard attached is, at present, a Digambara Jain property and is under the supervision of Patavāri Hiralal Kamdār", a devout Digambara Jain and a lover of antiquity.
The surface of the rock containing the inscription is not smooth but rough and undulating. and hence it is very difficult to take impressions of the record. The rock has suffered for centuries from exposure and it was only very recently that Rão Savāi Krishna Singh, the grandfather of the present Rao Savzi Kesari Singh of Bijholi, erected a small roof over the rock for protection. Wherever the rock was originally defective, it has been left blank; but now the portion of the rock used for engraving has also peeled off at places, and thus some of the important portions of the text have totally been destroyed. As regards measurement, the first line of writing on the rock is 5' 3" long and the last complete line is 12' in length, the intervening lines gradually increasing in length both ways as we proceed downwards. The height of the inscription between the first and the last line is 3' 6". There are in all thirty lines of writing on the rock, of which the last one is even less than half.
Regarding palæography there is practically nothing remarkable. The initial vowel i which is used three or four times in the whole inscription, however, appears in its ancient form made up of two dots and & comma below, the modern form of the letter being totally absent. The consonant jh which occurs twice in two different geographical names, viz., Morājhari (1. 11) and Laghu-Viihoki (1. 29) is somewhat confusing, having been so formed as to appear like kr. The form of n is through. out similar to that of t except for a small notch on the lowest extremity of the left-hand side loop which is often imperceptible. G in its reduplicated form is throughout represented as gn.
In respect of orthography the most conspicuous point to be noted is the indiscriminate uge of the sibilants, particularly the dental and the palatal, throughout the inscription, e.g., Nātāsoūsēna (1. 2), Pārsvanāthaḥ (1. 4), subha-tatiḥ and chaturvvinsatih (1. 6), sauryēna (1. 10), etc., of which the use of 8 in place of & is more frequent than vice versa. Almost the same is the case with regard to the use of vand 6, for examples, cf. -nitamvini-, vibhrati and miruvadha-vodho (1.8), vabhūva (1. 12), sad-vuddhi-vaṁdhura (1. 13), etc., and -baryah (1. 8), -ballin (1. 18) and banam (1. 20). J is used in lieu of y in jam na(yan-na) (1. 8) and bhārijayor- (1. 14). The sound of kh is sometimes represented by its proper sign, while in some cases the sign for 8h is employed in its stead. Con. sonants following a superscript r are often reduplicated, e.g., in nishth-ärppitaṁ (1. 1), karmm. Onmülana- (1.5), mirggatah (1. 12), and so on; sometimes they are left single, as in gambhiry-audāryabalva)ryah (1.8), [da]rbayāmi (1. 19), etc. Nasals are throughout represented by anusvāra, the only exception being Ganga( ngā)nātha (1. 21). The sign for avagraha is employed about ten times.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit and except for a few grammatical inaccuracies, the composition is free from errors. The clerical and engraving mistakes are, however, considerable. Thus, sandhi is not observed in some cases, while in others it is wrong. The transitive root sū, 'to beget, to produce is used intransitively in fri-Jāsato=stüta (1. 13). The verbal noun samandiri in samanātri koti-lingänā (1. 21) is tiged for its causative form samanāpayitri. Some of the verses contain paronymous words and thus convey double meanings. The whole epigraph is in verse except adoration to Vitarāga in the beginning and & portion after the last verse in l. 29, commencing with the date in numerals and terminating with the last line, recording various donations of land made by different persons for the maintenance of the Pārsvanātha temple, which are in prose.
II am indebted to this gentlemen as well as to Sadha Sitaramdās, both residents of Bijholt, for the kind help they extended to me when I was there in connection with the preparation of transcript of the rooord wder edition.
Ojha, Rajaputāne bi Itihdes, Vol. II, p. 1198.
