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SEPTEMBER, 1889.]
BAGUMRA GRANT OF NIKUMBHALLASAKTI.
265
(38) Huge caparisoned elephants, wounded and sore, rolled like snakes struck by lightning, - in the field where the Chembian, valiant in war, and adorned with necklaces and anklets of gold, killed those who would not approach him (in frienlship).
(39) Where hardy warriors strove, setting foot against foot, the white umbrellas, lost by the enemy, lying without handles, and filled with blood, appeared like salvers containing water coloured with red cotton, — in the field where the lord of Punal-Nadu defeated the king of Vanji.
(40) The elephants all dropped down, and seemed as if raking the soil with silver ploughs - in the field where the fierce Cheñkanmal, with an army possessing thundering drums, and countless lances, showered arrows on his enemies.
(41) The elephants, pierced in their breast with lances by warriors and anable to stand, dropped, and laid their cars on the gronnd, as if to licar the secrets of the carth, -- in the field where the lord of the land of leaping floods, who possesses thundering drums, killed those who would not unite with him.
BAGUMRA GRANT OF NIKUMBHALLASAKTI;
DATED IN THE YEAR 406.
BY G. BÜHLER, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E. The subjoined edition of the Bagumra grant of Nikumbhallasakti has been prepared according to an excellent ink-impression taken by Mr. Fleet. It is frequently the case with imperfectly preserved inscriptions that a good impression is easier to read than the original, where the half-effaced strokes are difficult to recognise. And it thus happens that, thanks to Mr. Fleet's work, I am able to restore now the whole text, and to give a number of important emendations of the version published in my German article " Ueber eine Sendraka Inschrift aus Gujarat" (Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, Band CXIV. p. 169ff.) from the original plates. The most important is the new reading of the date, which I formerly gave as sarivatsarasatachatush: shatchatvárunsadadhike, etc. The reading shaduttaré is plain on the accompanying lithograph. It was first recognized by Mr. Fleet.
The grant is engraved on two copper plates, - now in the British Museum, each measuring about 7' by 5%. The rims aro raised. Two holes on the lower broad side of the first plate and on the upper one of the second, show that they were held together by two rings which have been lost. Only the inner sides of the plates are inscribed; the first has nineteen, the second twenty lines. The technical execution is very bad. The letters are often badly formed, of unequal size, and sometimes stand so close together that they ran into each other. The upper part of the first plate and the lower one of the second have considerably suffered by oxydisation. The letters closely resemble those of the Kavi and Nausari inscriptions of the Gurjara king Jayabhata IV. A few pecaliarities, such as the round form of the subscribed ma in lakshmikak (1.9) and in brahmaróttardi (1. 17), occur also in the later Valabhî inscriptions. The abnormal form of the same letter, which looks like sha, e.g. in Nilumbhallašaktik (1. 15), and in grâmarito (1. 17), is probably due to want of skill on the part of the engraver. The language is throughout Sanskrit, and, with the exception of the introductory verse and the quotations from Vyasa towards the end, very faulty prose. The grammatical knowledge of the author of the document must have been very limited. He uses the accusative instead of the nominative in savitáram ivoilayavantam anuraktamanndaluni cha (1.7), kalpadrumam iva, and Janárddanam iva (1. 8), makes the accusative plural of the a-stems and i-stems end in the anusvára before consonants and in m before vowels (11. 17-18), and forms compounds like vikasitamahatiyasasi (1. 2-3), instead of vikasitamahdyasasi, amalayaśasah (1. 7.), instead of 'yakah, and apahritamaséshabalirajya (1. 8-9), instead of apahritáséshabaliránh. It is to his ignorance and carelessness that we owe the monster rajaksrih (1. 29), instead of rajasrih or
Regarding ita discovery, see ante, Vol. XII. p. 179. ante, Vol. V. p. 113, and Vol. XIII. p. 70.
