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JULY, 1888.]
TWO INSCRIPTIONS FROM TERAHI.
TWO INSCRIPTIONS FROM TERAHI; [VIKRAMA-] SAMVAT 960.
BY PROF. F. KIELHORN, C.I.E., GÖTTINGEN.
Mr. Fleet has supplied me with rubbings, received from Sir Alexander Cunningham, of the two short inscriptions, which I shall mark here A. and B., mentioned in Archæological Survey of India, Vol. XXI. p. 177. The import of these inscriptions is clear enough, and it is very different from what it has been supposed to be; but only the rubbing of A. suffices for editing the inscription in full.
A.
According to Sir A. Cunningham, this inscription is on a prostrate pillar, near a temple outside Têrahi,' a village on the 'Mohwar' river, in the state of Gwalior, Long. 78° 1' E., Lat. 25° 3' N., Indian Atlas, quarter-sheet 52 N. E. It consists of 5 lines. The writing covers a space of about 1'3" broad by 4" high, and appears to be well preserved. The size of the letters is about." The characters are Dêvanagari; and the language is Sanskrit.
The inscription is dated in the year 960, expressed by decimal figures only, on the fourth day of the dark half of the month Bhadrapada, on Sani or Saturday. And it records that, on that day, there took place "here, on the Madhuvêņi," or the stream Madhu, a fight between the mahásámantádhipatis, the illustrions Gunaraja and the illustrious Undabhata, in which the kottapala, or guardian of the fort, the illustrious Chândiyana, an adherent or follower of Gunarâja, was killed. The inscription closes with an Anushṭubh verse suitable to the occasion.
Referred to the Vikrama era the date, 960, taken as the year expired, or 961 current, Bhadrapada va. di. 4, calculated by Dr. Schram's and Prof. Jacobi's tables, corresponds to July 16th, 903 A.D., which was a Saturday, as required. On that day, at sunrise, the fourth tithi of the dark half was current, and it ended about 14h. 53m. after mean sunrise. In 903 A.D. the solar month Bhadrapada lasted from about sunrise of July 26th to about sunrise of August 26th, and since within that time there were two new-moons, one about 1h. 17m. before sunrise of July 27th, and the other about 7h. 35m. after sunrise of August 25th, there were in 903 A.D. two lunar months Bhadrapada, and July 16th
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was the fourth of the dark half of the first of these two months. The fourth of the second, or adhika, dark fortnight of Bhadrapada would have been Monday, August 15.
By a singular coincidence, I have lately received from Dr. Burgess an impression of that "huge inscription," existing "somewhere in the state of Gwalior," which was mentioned in 1862 by Dr. F. E. Hall, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc., Vol. XXXI. p. 6, and which has been re-discovered by Dr. Burgess at Sêrôn (or Siyaḍoni, as it is called in the inscription itself), a place in the Lalitpur district of the North-Western Provinces, Long. 78° 23′ E., Lat. 24° 50' N., Indian Atlas, quarter-sheet 70 N. W., about 27 miles S.E. of Têrahi.' And I am thus enabled to state that one of the two mahúsamantadhipatis, spoken of in the present inscription, is mentioned also in the Sêrôn inscription. For, in lines 4-6, that inscription records that during the reign of the paramabhaṭṭáraka mahúrájádhirája paramésvara Mahendrapaladeva, who meditated on the feet of the p. m. p. Bhojadeva, in the year 964 (expressed both in words and by decimal figures) on the third of the dark half of the month Margasiras, the illustrious Undabhata, who is described as maháprútihára-samadhigatáséshamahúsabda-mahúsúmantúdhipati, being in residence at Siyadoņi, made certain religious grants at that place. This statement is interesting, because it proves the correctness of my reading of the year of the present inscription, 960 (not 910), and because it shows that Undabhata was a general or feudatory of the paramoant sovereigns of the country, the rulers of Kanyakubja. On the other hand, the date of the present inscription shows that the dates of the Sêrôn inscription must undoubtedly be referred to the Vikrama era.
The river Madhu or Madhuvênî, mentioned in the present inscription, I take to be the river 'Mohwar' of the maps, on which 'Têrahi' is situated.
B.
This inscription also is on a prostrate pillar, near the pillar which contains the inscription A. It consists of 5 lines. The writing covers a space of about 1' 1" broad by 3" high, and
