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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
Vox. XXXIII 38 [valnäbhako nirupamair=vfittaiḥ prasastim bubhāṁ(bhām) || 27(8) Mathur-anvaya
Kayastha-Bhimgakasy-ärgasambhavaḥ lilēkha Vikramo dhimān=satām-agrēBaron
Daghah || 28(29) Utkirnpavān=j29 math Bhimadēvah sūtra bhritām varaḥ kshatriyaḥ Somadēvôbhūd=adhyakshaḥ sarva
karmmani || 29(30) Saxhvat 1336 Märggairaha-vadi 6 Sukra-dino ||'|| Srl bri srl srl
2. Narwar Inscription of V.8. 1339 The inscribed space on the squarish stone slab measures about 224 inches in length and 22 inches in height. There are in all 27 lines of writing in the inscription. The preservation of the epigraph is not quite satisfactory. A number of letters are damaged especially in the central part of the record. The characters belong to the Dēvanagari alphabet of about the thirteenth century and closely resemble those of the Baraudi inscription edited above. In several cases, the distinction between the forms of ch and v is not clear. The sign for avagraha is once used in line 14 in order to avoid the possibility of the personal name Ajayadēva being read as Jayadēva. As regards orthography also, the inscription resembles the Baraudi record. We have the use of anusvāra in the place of class nasals and of final m at the end of the halves of stanzas. Reduplication of a consonant after r is noticed only in the cases of t, d, and dh. There are some cases of the wrong use of : for $ and vice versa. The language is Sanskrit and, with the exception of a few passages at the beginning and end, the whole epigraph is written in verse. It is a prasasti composed in 27 stanzas in various metres. The verses are numbered consecutively. The date, quoted in the last line, is V. S. 1339, Pausha-vadi 10, Thursday. It regularly corresponds to the 26th November 1282 A. D. The month was Pürnirmānta.
The inscription begins with the symbol for Siddham and the word siddhih, which are followed by the 27 stanzas of the eulogy. The first two stanzas (verses 1-2) contain adoration to the gods Siva or Sadāsive and Achyuta (Vishnu). Verse 3 introduces a hill or hill-fort called Ratnagiri, while verses 4-8 state that the goddess Mahārunda created there a hero named Jayapala who became the progenitor of a family named after him, although it was pronounced as Jajapella by the common people. Jayapāla was no doubt the mythical progenitor of the Jajapēlla (often Sanskritised as Yajvapāla) dynasty of Narwar. But the interesting fact supplied by this description is that the original home of the Jajapēllas was at Ratnagiri and that their family deity was Mahāruņdā, no doubt a form of the Mother-goddess worshipped originally at Ratnagiri and later possibly also at Nalagiri or Nalapura (Narwar) which the Jajapëllas afterwards made their capital. Ratnagiri mentioned in this connection cannot be satisfactorily identified. But it may be the same as the modern town of Ratangarh Khiri (lat. 24° 49', long. 75° 13') in the former Gwalior State, situated on the route from Nimach to Bundi, 36 miles north-east of the former and 73 miles south-west of the latter.
Verse 6 introduces king Chahada born in the Jajapēlla dynasty. He is stated to have captured from his enemies a number of forts including Nalagiri (i.e. Nalapura, modern Narwargarh). Chahada thus seems to have transferred the Jajapēlla capital to Narwar which he had conquered. The next stanza (verse 7) speaks of Chāhada's son Naravarman (called Nțivarman in verse 18 and in several other records including the Baraudi inscription edited above) and verse 8 of king Asalladēva, son of Naravarman. Verses 9-10 describe the reigning monarch Gopala who was the son of Asalladēva. An interesting information in Gopāla's description is that he defeated king Viravarman, lord of Jöjabhukti in a battle fought on the bank of the river Sikatā (Sikată-nimnaga-Kachchha-bhūmau). King Viravarman seems also to be compared with the epio hero
1 There is a heart-shaped design between the double dandas.
