________________
No. 22-UNCHAHRA FRAGMENTARY INSCRIPTION OF V. S. 1294
(1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 1.5.1958)
The inscribed slab was secured for the Allahabad Municipal Museum from the village of Unchahra in the former Nagod State, now merged in Madhya Pradesh. The fragmentary inscription was noticed in the Journal of the U. P. Historical Society, Vol. VIII, pp. 21 ff., and published above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 186 ff., without illustration. It is re-edited here since our views do not entirely agree with those of the previous writers on the s
The inscribed area on the stone slab measures about 17 inches in height and about 12 inches in breadth. There are altogether 21 lines of writing, the first of which is my partially preserved. But it appears that the first line of the inscription is completely broken away along with the upper part of the stone, so that the first line of the extant part of the record is really line 2 of the inscription. A few letters are broken away and lost at the end of several of the lines. The aksharas are about three quarters of an inch in height.
The characters of the inscription belong to the Devanagari alphabet of about the thirteenth century. The language of the record is Sanskrit and it is written in both prose and verse. There are five stanzas in the first half of the epigraph in lines 1-13, the rest of it in lines 13-22 being in prose. The palaeography and orthography of the inscription closely resemble those of the later records of the Gahaḍavala kings, although it is a few decades later than the latest, known Gahadavala epigraph. The use of final m at the end of the second and fourth feet of verses and of the class nasal instead of anusvära in some cases are interesting orthographical features of the inscription under study.
The date of the record is given in the prose part in lines 18-20 as the Damanaka-chaturdasi tithi in the year 1294 (in words) apparently of the Vikrama Samvat. Unfortunately the name of the week-day is lost. The month is not mentioned by the scribe no doubt because the name of the tithi gives a clear indication. We know that Damanaka-chaturdasi is the name of the 14th tithi of the bright half of the month of Chaitra. V.S. 1294, Chaitra-su. 14, seems to correspond to Tuesday, March 30, 1238 A.D.
The object of the inscription is to record the construction and consecration of a temple of the god Siva styled Vindhyesvara by a lady whose name appears to be Uddalladevi. The name occurs in the prose part in line 17. It was apparently also mentioned in verse 1 ; but the passage containing the letters appears to have broken awap. Where exactly the temple was built is not specified; but probably it was built near the village of Unchahra where the inscribed stone slab has been found. Verse 3 suggests that the temple stood on a hillock pertaining to the Vindhyan range and the suggestion seems to be supported by the name Vindhyesvara applied to the deity installed in it. A hillock actually, stands near the village.
Verse 1 of the inscription apparently introduces the lady who was responsible for the construction of the temple in question, although the passage containing her name, as already noted above, seems to have broken away. There is a player in this stanza for the continuity and continuous rule probably of the royal family to which she belonged. Verse 2 speaks of Rāņakachakravartin Lakshmana alias Dharmadeva who was related to the mother (mätri-paksha) of the said lady. The introduction of this ruler, who was probably the maternal grandfather or uncle of the lady, is
1 See also ARASI,1935-36, pp. 95-96.
* Above, Vol. XXIII, p. 134.
(121)
