Epigraphia Indica Vol 27

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 87

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
No. 11.-GUNJI ROCK INSCRIPTION OF KUMARAVARADATTA
(1 Plate)
V. V. MIRASHI, AMRAOTI
Gunji is a small village, 14 miles north by west of Sakti, the chief town of a feudatory state of the same name in the Chhattisgarh Division of the Central Provinces. Sakti lies on the CalcuttaNagpur line of the Bengal Nagpur Railway. At the foot of a hill near the village there is a kunda (or a pool of water) called Damau Dahra, which obtains its supply of water from the neighbouring hills and is believed to be unfathomable. On one side of this pool there is a rock on which the record edited here is engraved.' Gunji is about 40 miles north-west of Kirari where a wooden pillar with a record in Brahmi characters of the second century A. D. was discovered in 1921 which was subsequently edited in this journal. About 75 miles almost due north of Gunji lies the Ramgarh hill which contains the well-known Sitävenga and Jogimārā caves with interesting inscriptions of the second century B. C.3 Gunji was thus situated in a part of the country which was flourishing in the centuries before and after the beginning of the Christian era.
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[VOL. XXVII
The present inscription was first brought to notice nearly forty-five years ago in the Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of Western India for 1903-4, p. 54. Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar, who deciphered the record then, referred it to the first century A. D. He called attention to the two regnal dates in it, viz., the fifteenth day of the fourth fortnight of Hemanta in the fifth year and the second day of the sixth fortnight of Grishma in the eighth year, and read the name of the king as Kumāra Vasanta. He also noticed the words Bhagavato Usubhatithe, the name of a thera Godachha and the name Vasiṭhiputa. This account was followed by Rai Bahadur Hiralal in his Inscriptions in C. P. and Berar. He suggested, however, that Väsiṭhiputa mentioned in it might be identical with the homonymous person mentioned in the Ajanta cave inscription No. 1, and that the record might, in that case, belong to the second century B. C. A facsimile of the inscription, somewhat worked up by hand, was published in the Gazetteer of Chhattisgarh Feulatory States, in 1909 without any further account of the record. The inscription has thus remained unedited for more than forty years after it became known. In view of its importance for the ancient history of Chhattisgarh, I requested Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra to copy it for me. He very kindly complied with my request and supplied me with an excellent estampage from which I edit the record here.
1 Gazetteer of Chhattisgarh Feudatory States, p. 193.
2 Above, Vol. XVIII, pp. 152 ff.
3 Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIV, pp. 197 ff. The second date was misread. As shown below, the correct reading is the tenth day of the sixth fortnight of Grishma in the sixth regnal year. The symbol denoting the year, which is exactly like the one denoting the fortnight further on in the same line, leaves no doubt that the year was 6. As for the day, Dr. Bhandarkar was possibly misled by the word bitiyain which qualifies go-sahasam. He read the king's name as Kumara Vasanta. As he is called Rajan, it looks strange that he should still be a Kumara. The correct reading is Kumaravaradata and Kumaravara means Kārttikeya. Cf. namo Kumaravarasa in line 1 of the Nanaghat cave inscription of Naganika, Arch. Surv. West. Ind., Vol. V, pp. 60 f. For the honorific suffix siri added to the royal name, compare Chandasiri (éri-Chandra) in the Mudrarakshasa, Act I.
5 First edition (1916), p. 168; second ed. (1932), p. 180.
As shown below, Visithiputa, mentioned in the present inscription, was a metronymic of Bodhadatta who made the two gifts recorded here. He was not identical with Vasiṭhiputa mentioned in the Ajanta inscription, because the personal name of the latter was Katahadi. See Arch. Sure. West. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 116.
This was probably one of the two photographs which Mr. H. Cousins, Superintendent of Archaeology, is said to have contributed to the Gazetteer. See the Prefatory Note in the Gazetteer.
[But for the help kindly rendered by Pandit L. P. Pandeya of the Mahakosala Historical Society it would not have been possible for me to copy the epigraph. He even accompanied me to the spot. -B. C. C.] MGIPC-S1-XVI-1-1-22-6-49-150.