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No. 43]
NANDSA YUPA INSCRIPTIONS
form in avatarayitva for avatarya in A, ll. 1-2 and B, 1. 3. If the record has been correctly copied, we have to admit that there is a glaring syntactical irregularity in it. The series of the absolute clauses with which the record commences is left without any subject, nor are they fol lowed by a principal clause, as is usually required. The author of the record adopts the ornate style of Sanskrit prose. There are several similes and metaphors; anuprāsa is not forgotten (B, 1. 9), compounds are frequent and some of them are very long (A, 1. 4). The record is a prakasti, and it must be acknowledged that the language used is appropriate for the occasion. It gives a vivid idea of the fame and exploits of the hero it commemorates.
255
Both the records are dated. The date, which is given in numerals as well as in words in inscription A and in numerals only in inscription B, is the full moon day of the month of Chaitra of the Krita (i.e. Vikrama) year 282. The corresponding year according to the Christian era would be A.D. 226. The inscriptions are thus the earliest records of the Vikrama era so far known. They are two years earlier than the Barnala yupa inscription A, and 11 years anterior to the three yupa inscriptions of the Maukharis discovered by the present writer at Baḍvä.
The inscriptions are primarily intended to commemorate the performance of the Ekashashtirātra sacrificial session, which, as its name indicates, used to extend over 61 days. The following constituent sacrifices were offered in this session in the order given below:
1st day, 2nd day,
Prāyaṇīya sacrifice. Chaturvinsa sacrifice.
3rd to 20th day, 21st to 26th day, 27th to 35th day, 36th to 41st day, 42nd to 47th day, 48th day,
Three Abhiplava sacrifices, each lasting for six days. Prishthya sacrifice.
Navaratra sacrifice. Pratiloma Prishthya sacrifice. Abhiplava sacrifice. Ayu sacrifice.
49th day,
Gau sacrifice. Dasarātra sacrifice.
50th to 59th day, 60th day,
Mahāvrata sacrifice. Udayaniya sacrifice."
61st day,
The Brahmanas and Srauta Sutras give several details of each of the above sacrifices, but it is unnecessary to discuss them here. The purpose and significance of the session itself will be discussed later on.
We have so far noticed several yupa inscriptions, but they usually refer to short sacrifices. The longest sacrificial session, so far discovered from epigraphs, was the Dvadaśaratra-saltra, performed at Isäpur near Mathura in the 28th year of the reign of the emperor Huvishka by Brahmana Drōnala. A long sacrificial session, lasting for as many as 61 days, is referred to for the first time in the present records.
A sacrificial sattra can be performed only by Brahmanas; but the potentate who is eulogised in our records was a Kshatriya. So it is stated that he did not himself perform it, but caused it to be performed; cf. avatarayitv=ai(avatary-ai)kashashtiratram-atisatram, B, 11. 3-4. Not
1 Above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 118 ff.
* Above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 43 ff.
Panchavimsa Brahmana, XXIV. 18; Katyayana Śrauta Sutra, 25, 18, 17-24.
• Kaushitaki Brahmana, XXIV, 1-3; Aitareya Brahmana, IV, 10-16 Sankhayana Srau'a Sutra, IX, 22:
etc.
A. R., A. S. I., 1910-1, p. 41.
• ब्राह्मणानां वेतरयोरार्त्विज्याभावात् ॥ Parocamimarad, VI, 6, 18,
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