________________
No. 29] SAUGOR STONE INSCRIPTION OF SANKARAGANA
163 ABSTRACT OF CONTENTS Lines 1-6 Invocation to Ganapati, Siva and Mahāvarāha.
L1.6-12 In the renowned line of rulers was born a king named Vira, who established his command on the heads of multitude of kings. To him was born king Taila, who protected the earth. Kamadēva is his son, who surpasses in form the mind-born (God of Love) and is the sun to the lotuses in the form of poets.
L1.12-69 The illustrious Kādarba-chakravarti Sri-Vira-Kāvadēvarasa, while he was protecting the kingdom, seated on the throne in happiness at his capital Chandāura endowed (on the specified date), in the presence of the god Sri-Gökarna Mahabaliśvara, lands as naruamanya in the agrahāra village of Müfür, wet land, müde 10 to Mahesvarabhatta āhitāgni of the Visvāmitra yõtra ; mūde 10 to his brother's son Nārāyaṇabhatta ; mūļe 12 to Vāsudēva Bhattopadhyāya of the Bhargava götra ; müde 10 to Nārāyaṇabhatta of the Amgirasa götra ; etc., in all müde 69 including the garden area and other adjuncts.
L1.69-80 Imprecation.
No. 29-SAUGOR STONE INSCRIPTION OF SANKARAGANA
(1 Plate)
V. V. MIRASHI, AMRAOTI This inscription, though listed in the first edition of R. B. Hiralal's Inscriptions in C. P. ani Berar, published in 1916, was very briefly noticed only in the second edition of that work, published in 1932. It is edited here for the first time from the original stone which I examined in situ and from inked estampages kindly supplied by the Superintendent, Archeological Survey, Central Circle, and by the Government Epigraphist for India.
At Saugor, the chief town of the Saugor District in the Central Provinces, a number of sculptures were collected from the neighbouring places many years ago and built up into small imitation kiosks in the four corners of the garden of the military mess-house. The inscription is incised on a slab of red sandstone fixed on the top of a panel of the same kind of stone which is built into one of these kiosks. In the panel below, the principal figures are those of a man who has folded his hands in salutation, and a woman, probably his wife, who has placed her right hand on the head of a small figure, evidently their daughter, who also stands with folded hands. Behind the male figure appears a horse and behind the latter, another male figure, apparently a groom, holding the reins of the horse.
The record has very much worn away by exposure to weather. It consists of five lines, of which the last one commences in the centre. Several aksharas in the last three lines have become more or less indistinct. The average size of letters is 1". The characters are of the proto-Nagari alphabet, resembling those of the stone inscription at Chhoti Deori. The form of the initial i is. however, different, since the curve below the two dots is here open at the top ; t has not yet developed a vertical at the top; in some cases the letter is laid on its side, see Bhattāraka-, in 1. 2;j still retains its three horizontal bars, see Mahārājādhiraja-, 1.1; p is open at the top, while v which resembles its upper portion, is closed, see pravarddhamāna-, 1. 2; the lower end of the wedge of r is in some cases very much elongated, see Paramēśvara-, 1. 3. These palmographical peculiarities
1 Saugor District Gazetteer, p. 237. 1 See below, p. 171 and plate.
