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No. 14-MANDKILA TAL INSCRIPTION, V. S. 1043
(1 Plate) B. CH. CHHABRA, NEW DELHI
(Received on 22. 1. 1959)
The subjoined inscription is neatly engraved on a well-dressed slab of black stone. It is now fixed up in the back wall of the recently constructed Vishnu temple on the eastern bank of a tank, called Mandidla Tai, at Nagar in the Uniara Tahsil formerly in the Jaipur State but now in the Tonk District, Rajasthan. The inscribed slab is said to have been discovered in the course of reexcavation of the tank which had dried up on account of soarsity of rains. Rao Raja Sahib Sardar Singhji of Uniara caused it to be set up where it is now found. A somewhat defective summary of the contents of the inscription was published by Shri Shaktidhar Sharma Guleri in the Bhārata Kaumudi, Part I, Allahabad, 1945, pp. 371-72.
The surface of the slab measures 24" by 18". The writing on it is neatly executed and consists of 35 lines. In the centre there is a cirole, containing a diagrem known as chakra-bandha, the inner lines forming a star by the intersection of two triangles. The inscription on the whole 18 well preserved except for the last two lines which have sustained some damage.
The script of the inscription is Kutila or rather Proto-Nigart and is regular for the period to which it belongs. The nail-heads of the earlier period later became flattened triangles and these, in turn, gradually became straight lines on the top of many letters. In the present record, both triangles and top-lines are in evidence. In the case of e, ai, o and au, both prishtha-mätra and firo-mätrà have been used indisoriminately. The letter b is invariably indicated by the sign for v.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit and the composition entirely in verse except for the opening obeisance in line 1 and a few words in line 29 where the date is repeated in figures. In point of orthography, the following may be observed. Anumara generally takes the place of class nasals, barring such instances as nagaran-dhardtals (line 4). Consonants after r are reduplicated only in a few cases like varnna Yline 7) and purvajän (line 16). In regard to sandhi rules, there was occasion for l becoming anundeika in frimdl-loka (line 4) and yaomilk (line 8), but the essential chandra-bindu, the anundeika sign, is missing in both the cases. Sandhi has not been observed in prabhavaih yukto (lines 10-11). In odrichchhitani (line 6), vdshohchhao (line 25) and chchhäyndua (line 22), the letter ch is redundant. The word dushkeriti is wrongly spelt as duhkriti (line 3). Jikvämūliya has been used in lines 13 and 34, its sign resembling the letter sh. The use of 8 for lin sa buat (line 2) and kriednu (line 34) is wrong. In verse 31, a personal name bas been spelt as Yala, obviously from the word yabas. Some other common mistakes may be observed in satvoril (line 12) and rajod (line 16) for sattails and rajjod respectively. Of lexical interest are the words
101. tho namo Yadagupta in a carly inscription from Mandator (above, Vol. XXX, p. 196, text line 10).
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