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EPIGRAPHÍA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIV
using it as the lintel of a door. Both the upper and lower parts of the slab were cut off in this process, affecting a line of writing in both cases. There is also a deeply cut line (about 3 inch in width) nearly half an inch above the lower edge of the stone. This line runs over the letters of the left part of the last line of the writing. Besides the said two damaged lines of writing at the upper and lower edges of the slab, the extant part of the inscription consists only of two other lines in its central section. Unfortunately, even of these two lines, the left half of the first and also a quarter (consisting of eighteen aksharas) from the left end of the second are chiselled off. Since the metrical composition of the record helps us in determining the number of lost syllables in line 3, it is seen that about eighty aksharas were originally incised in each line of the inscription. The inscribed slab is stated to have been found at the Agnēbvar Ghat, Varanasi.
The characters belong to the ornamental variety of the North Indian (Siddhamātřikā) alphabet of the seventh or eighth century A.D. The forms of the letters ch, j, 8, etc., show that it cannot be assigned to a much later age. The shape of the letter is palaeographically interesting since it exhibits a triangular projection at the left side of the vertical in addition to the slanting stroke joined to its lower end from the left. There is only a slight difference between the letters p and y. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit and it is a prasasti written in verse. There are portions of three stanzas, all in the Vasantatilaka metre.
The object of the inscription seems to be to record the building of a pura, i.e. city or temple, apparently by a king, the clouds of dust raised by whose army is referred to. The pura is stated to have been endowed with palatial buildings and gateways. But the name of the king cannot be read in the extant part of the epigraph. The said person is further stated to have granted a hundred of what were called villages though they were really townships. The villages may have been given for the maintenance of a temple, around which a city appears to have been built. Unfortunately no other details can be gathered from the existing part of the inscription.
TEXT
1 ..... .......... ........ ........: Ll] -- - 2 vuu-vu-u----U-UUUUU-U--[l*]--U-UUU-UU-U
lufuli na m[u]ñchatë priyatamam=iva jātu sandhyām | Yad-vähini-vaba)hala-rēyu
krit-andhakāram drishţvă payoda-samayo=yam=iti pramugdhāļ| 3 --U UUU-UU-U--:-u- prachalitā[h] khalu rāja-[ha]msāḥ | Prāsāda
Baila-s[i]khar-ábharan-abhirămam ksitvā puram ruchira-gopuram-attra yēna grāmabhidhänā(na)-nayan-Ōtsava-pattanānām dattam satam prava u-uu
II.-Niya Inscription of the time of Mandrathavarmadēva Miya is a village in the Chakiya Tahsil of the Varanasi District, about 40 miles from Vārāṇasi. The area was formerly within the estate of the Rājā of Banaras. A fragment of a sculptured pilaster (about 191 inches by 12 inches), now kept in the house of the former Zamindar of the village, contains a small inscription. It is stated to have been found at the northern extremity of the village. The lower part of the stone is broken away resulting in considerable damage to the last line of the record. The inscribed space covers an area about 111 inches in length and 37 inches in height. There are only three lines of writing.
Prom impressione.
