Indian Antiquary Vol 14

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 14

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1885.
SANSKRIT AND OLD-KANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo. C.S., M.R.A.8., .I.E.
(Continued from Vol. XIII. p. 276.) No. CLI.
1' 11" high by 8' broad, and is well preserved, BYNA STONE-INSCRIPTION OF THE except for a few letters that have been worn
ADHIRAJA VIJAYA.-SAMVAT 1100. away, apparently by the sharpening of knives, Byana,--the Byana' of maps; in Lat. at the sides; the only letters, however, that 26° 55' N. and Long. 77° 21' E.,- is the chief cannot be restored with certainty are one at town of the Tabsil of the same name in the the end of line 13, and one at the beginning Bharatpur State in Rajputânå.
of line 14. The characters are Nagari, of About two miles to the south-west, and the period to which the inscription refers situated at the junction of the lands of Byåna
itself. and three other villages, there is a large and Commencing with an invocation of the ancient hill-fort called Bijayagadh or Bêje. Siddhas or Saints, the inscription proceeds to gadh, i.e. Vijayagadh or "the hill-fort of vic- record that, in the kingdom of the Adhirája tory." There are several old temples and Vijay a (line 5), at the city of Sripatha other remains in the fort, -the principal one (1. 6), there was the Súri or Jain teacher being the temple that is called Bijayamandir Maheśvara (1.4), a leader of the Svetambaras, or Bêjêmandir, i.e. the temple or hall of and belonging to the Kimyaka gachchha or victory.' But the chief object of interest is a sect (1 3), who occupied the seat of Vishņasuri red sandstone Lát, standing inside the walls of (1.2), i.e. who was the successor, or a successor, the fortress, towards the south-east, which has of Vishņusûri. Lines 6 to 11 record that on it an ancient inscription of the Varika Mahesvarasûri died when the year one thonking Vishnuvardhana, dated on the sand and one bundred was drawing to its close, tenth day of the dark fortnight of the month when the waning fortnight of the month Phålguna, in the year 428 of some anspecified Bhadrapada was current, and when the second era.' On the occasion of my visit, my servants lapar day of the dark fortnight, coupled with discovered, built into the inner side of the fort- the name of the moon, was passing away. wall near this Lál, a small stone containing Lines 12 to 17 describe how Maheśvarasûri's a still more ancient inscription; but, unfortu- fame, like the river Ganga, flowed through nately it is a mere fragment, and all that it the three worlds. And lines 17 and 18 record discloses is that it is the commencement of a that this prasasti was engraved by the Sádhu Sanskrit inscription of a Mahárája and Mahd- Sarvadêva in the year 1100, on the same day, séndpati, whose name is lost, of the Y a u. viz. Chandravara, or Monday, the second day of dhê ya gana or tribe.
the bright fortnight of the month Bhảdra. Inside the town of Byânâ, there are two The Adhiraja Vijaya mentioned in this inold Hindu temples, now used by the Musal- scription seems, from bis title, to be only a mans as Masjids, each with a Sanskrit inscrip- local chieftain, whose name is preserved in the tion in it. The inscription that I now publish, local traditions as Vijayapála, and who is said is on a pilaster on the left hand near the to have rebuilt and added to the fort, and to entrance of the unnamed temple which is have named it after himself. is described in Archeol. Surv. Ind. Vol. VI. p. 51ff. The mention of the city of Sripath à in and which the inscription shews to have this inscription, and of "the little pavilion belonged in the eleventh century A.D. to the standing in Sripath" in the inscription at Jaing. The writing covers a space of about the Ukha-Mandar' which I shall notice below,
1 For some reason or other, which I could not ascer July A.D. 1044.-This is according to the southern tain this fort is entered in maps under the name of computation, with the year beginning in KArttika. Ac
Badulgurh-Kot.'-The proper name of it is Bijaya. cording to the northern computation, with the year gadh-not Bijayamandirgadh, as Mr. Carlleyle gives it. beginning in Chaitra, the corresponding English dato
Archæol. Sury. Ind. Vol. VI. p. 60 and Plate viii. would be Wednesday, the 27th July, A.D. 1043.-Unless The era is probably that of the kings of MALAVA; see We assume that this inscription was composed by ante Vol. XIII. p. 163.
visitor from the south, this instance seems to shew that For a facsimile, see Indian Inscriptions No. 7.
the southern computation was the one in force in, at any
rate, this part of Rajputana. • The corresponding English date is Monday the 30th Archaol. Surv. Ind. Vol. VI. pp. 54, 56.