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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
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records like the Jhalrapatan inscription of 689 A.D. but that the former epigraph also shows the use of both the earlier tripartite and the later bipartite form of the letter y side by side. It is interesting to note that this latter palaeographical feature of the Nagda inscription, which is expected in a West: Indian record of the middle of the seventh century, is also a characteristic of the first of the two inscriptions under study, in which the earlier form of y is generally and its later form rarely used. This fact shows beyond doubt that the first of our two inscriptions cannot be assigned to a date much later than the middle of the seventh century A D. As will be seen below, the second inscription is 35 years later than the first and has to be referred to the close of the same century.
Although the preservation of the writing is not satisfactory, both the records were very carefully engraved as in the case of the other epigraphs of the Rajasthan area, referred to above. The writing in both the records is of the ornamental type. A few points of palaeographical interest, besides what has been said above, may be noticed here. Both the inscriptions use the letter b in some cases, though it is often written by the sign for •. Of initial vowels, the first inscription has ā in line 22, i in lines 3 and 5, and è in line 3. In it, upadhmāniya (lines 5, 7, 12) and jihvāmüliya (line 9) have been indicated respectively by two separate globular marks placed side by side above p and by a symbol looking like superscript v joined with subscript k. Numerical symbols for 2, 8, 10 and 40 occur in this record. In the second inscription, the characters of which closely resemble those of the other epigraph, we have the initial vowels a (lines 3, 5, 21), ā (lines 6, 22), i (lines 7, 8) and u (lines 14, 15). The final consonant t occurs once in line 4 and final n several times in lines 10 and 11. Jihvämūliya (line 9) has the same shape as in the other inscription. But upadhmaniya (twice in line 19) has a form which looks somewhat more developed than in the other epigraph and is generally found in contemporary records of the area.
The language of both the records is Sanskrit and, excepting the usual imprecatory and benedictory stanzas, they are written in prose. Both the records are written in ornate prose and Kavya style, though the style of the second epigraph is more ornate than that of the first. As regards orthography, both the inscriptions often reduplicate a consonant in conjunction with r and sometimes use the guttural nasal for anusvāra before &. The use of class nasals is noticed in many cases. Final m has been wrongly changed into anusvāra at the end of the halves of stanzas in both the epigraphs. The letter dh has been reduplicated before y in lines 6 and 13 of the first record and lines 4 and 18 of the second and, in the first inscription, v has been reduplicated in samvatsara in line 24.
Both the grants were issued by the subordinate rulers of the Guhila dynasty of Kishkindhipura, the first in the year 48 by Bhăvihita, who was the son of a brother of a chief named Dövagapa, and the second in the year 83 by Babhata who appears to have been a son of the said Dēvagana. Both Bhävihita and Babhata represent themselves as meditating on (or favoured by) the feet of Dēvagana. But, although Bābhata ruled later than the ruler Bhāvihita, the latter is not mentioned in the second inscription. It is difficult to say whether Bhāvihita occupied his paternal uncle's throne and was later overthrown by & son of the latter. It is, however, clear that the dates mentioned in the two records, viz. years 48 and 83, have to be referred to an era and considering the fact that the first epigraph has to be assigned to the middle of the seventh century and the second to the close of the same century, there is no doubt that they have to be referred to the Hareha era of 606 A.D. Thus the first record was issued in 653 A. D. and the second in 688 A.D.
We know from Al-Biruni that the Harsha era was prevalent in the Kanauj-Matbura region as late as the first half of the eleventh century A.D. when it was also mentioned in the Kashmirian almanace. The Shahpur (Patna District, Bihar) inscription of the time of Adityasēna, whose father Mädhavagupta is known to bave been a subordinate of Haraha (606-47 A.D.), is dated in the year 66
