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136
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
C.-Balsane Inscription; Saka 1106
This short inscription of four stanzas, rather indifferently engraved, has been published by Dr. M. G. Dikshit. Its text seems to be defective here and there. I had an opportunity of examining Dr. Dikshit's article on it at the time when it was going through the press. I even made a suggestion or two regarding its reading. The observations offered here are the result of a study which I subsequently happened to make of this interesting record. It presents certain difficulties that are still awaiting solution. Dr. Dikshit's provisional identification of the king Krishna figuring in it, for instance, with a member of the Abhira family of Bhambagiri needs corroboration. And his explanation of the line read by him as यः (कृष्णस्य महीपतेः करतले कर्त्ताशु पिछा (च्छा) चलं (लाम्)
[VOL. XXIX
I who in no time made over the earth...to the possession of the king Krishna" does not seem to have hit the nail on the head.
In the present note, however, I propose to draw attention to a more obvious point, namely the object of the inscription. "The object of the inscription," says Dr. Dikshit, "is to record that the Pandita repaired the Royal Matha (Raja-matha), standing on the banks of a river, at Balasīņaka, for the inhabitance of Brahmins." The relevant text ()SICALIMAŻ च भग्नं निरंतरं ब्रह्मनिवास हेतोः has accordingly been translated by him as “he caused to be repaired, for the perpetual inhabitance of Brahimins, the dilapidated Royal monastery."
The use of the term matha in the original has given rise to what I may call a misconception as to the exact purport of the record. It has been taken in its ordinary sense of monastery,' whereas it has in all probability been employed here in its secondary sense of devalaya or ' temple.'
In the very opening sentence of his paper, Dr. Dikshit informs us that the inscription is carved on the lintel of the entrance door of a temple." And in the absence of any specific reference to the contrary in the inscription, we may be justified in accepting that the matha mentioned therein refers to the very temple itself where the inscription is found.
Going through the earlier reports on the epigraph, one gets at the root of the confusion. Mr. H. Cousens first drew attention to its existence upon the matha." Mr. R. D. Banerji, who happened to examine it later on, has asserted that it is found on a temple and not in the matha. It appears that both the scholars in reality referred to one and the same building, the former naming it matha after the manner of the inscription and the latter calling it temple in accordance with its actual appearance. The mistake, however, seems to lie in the fact that to Mr. Cousens, the term matha meant nothing else but monastery. To him the building in question was thus a monastery, because it was labelled, so to say, as matha whatever its form and size. One finds him describe it as such in his Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan." In this publication he gives also a plan of the matha," from which one can see that the modest dimensions of the structure answer more to a simple fane than to a monastery.
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It remains to be shown that matha, meaning temple', is found not only in lexicons, but also actually used in old inscriptions. The Dhauli cave inscription of the time of Santikara,
1 Above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 309 ff. and plate.
* Ibid., p. 313.
Ibid., p. 310.
Ibid., p. 313.
Ibid., p. 309.
Revised Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Bombay Presidency, p. 55. An. Prog. Report, A. 8. I., Western Circle, 1918-19, .p. 45.
• Archaeological Survey of India, Imperial Series, Vol. XLVIII, pp. 23, 26-27. Ibid., plate XXVIII.
