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126
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[May, 1881.
[१] पुचो यस्सोमिलस्य प्रचुरगुणनिधेर्भटिसोमो महात्मा
by Dr. Bhau Dâji. Dr. Hall's second rendering
of 141 years after the extinction of the empire [7] तत्सूनू रुद्रसोम [:] प्रथुलमतियशा व्याघ्र इत्यन्यसंज्ञो
of Skandagupta is untenable on palæographic [9] मद्रस्तस्यात्मजोभूदद्विजगरुयतिष प्रायशः प्रीतिमान्यः
grounds alone, as the characters do not belong [1 To
HC Handet sirat
to a later age than that of the Guptas. Then [19] श्रेयोर्थं भूतभूत्यै पथि नियमवतामर्हतामादिकर्तृन्
the Girnår inscription of Skandagupta's [1] पञ्चन्द्रास्थापयित्वा धरणिधरमयान्सन्निखातस्ततोयम् governor Parnadatta, is dated in the year [12] STIH: TaffariTGTHTH: f ait 136 calculated from the time of Gupta (Gupta
sya kaládgananá vidheya),' and it is well known Translation.
that the coins and all other dated inscriptions To the perfect one! He-the floor of whose
of the Guptas show no other era but this. audience hall is swept by the breeze of the bowing
Rajendralala Mitra connects sante with the date heads of hundreds of kings, born of the Gupta which commences in the following pada of the race, whose glory is wide expanded, prosperous
sloka, and makes it express that the year' was beyond all others, like to Sakra, and master of
"expired,' but such a construction is unusual. hundreds of sovereigns,- in this Skanda
The remainder of the inscription has not gupta's peaceful reign, in the year a hundred | been translated since Prinsep's time. and forty one, when the month of Jyeshtha
The inscription states that one Madra, was come, in this jewel-like village, known to
whose pedigree is given up to his great grandpeople as Kaku bha-purified from being
ng father, set up" five principal originators in the
father, set up associated with the good : the great-hearted
path of the Arhats," and then this pillar. The Bhattisoma, who is the son of Somila, a Jains call their Tirthankaras by the name of store of many good qualities, and whose son Ådikartris but five of them, it is well known, Rudrasoma is great in mind and in glory, are special favourites, viz:- Adinatha, Santiand is otherwise called V yaghra, whose son
nátha, Neminátha, Paráva, and Mahavira. These was Madra, kindly disposed, especially to
are oftenest represented in their temples, and Brahmans, Gurus, and ascetics. Being afraid
addressed at the beginning of Jaina books. These on seeing this world to be evanescent, he made a
are doubtless the "five lords" (pañchendra) heap of merit, and for his own and other people's
spoken of. The pillar we know from the welfare, having established, of stone, five chief
sculptures on it to be Jaina, and though there Ādikartris (Tirthankaras) in the path of the
are no temples near it now, there are traces ascetic Arhats, he set up this fame-conveying
of brick foundations in the ground about stone-pillar, which is beautiful and like the
25 feet distant from the pillar on the north, on summit of chief of mountains.
which must have stood a Jain temple in former Remarks.
times. Besides this, there are ruins of two The differences in previous renderings of temples on the east side of the pillar, at a disthe first sloke of this inscription have all tance of about 200 yards, which were standing turned on the word sünte, which means both in the time of Buchanan. In one of these ruins
peaceful' and 'expired ;' but it was correctly there is still a Jaina image of Pârsvanath in construed by Dr. Hall in his first version, and Kâyotsarga Moodra.
SANSKRIT AND OLD-CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo. C. S., M.R.A.S.
(Continued from p. 105.) No. XCVII.
guage, is edited from a black-lead impression The accompanying inscription, partly in the taken by Mr. R. B. Joyner, Executive Engineer, Sanskrit, and partly in the Old-Canarese, lan- Kalådgi, from a stone at Bijapur which, with
13 Literally "thirty, ten, and one over a hundred."
10 Ådikastri originators' the first who lead in the 1Dharanidharamayan, literally made of a mountain,'
path, but usually applied to the Tirthankaras: see Kalpa but employed here to mean simply of stone.'
Satra, bakrastava. नमोत्थणं समणस्स भगवी महावीरस्स 19 pañchendra is an adjective to Adikartri,-five chief | ET H IOPTFT.-Sanskrit trans. THEZ - or 'Eve lordly.
| णाय भगवते महावीरायादिकर्ने चरमतीर्थकराय.