________________
JUNE, 1904]
SOME TERMS IN THE KSHATRAPA INSCRIPTIONS.
163
ON SOME TERMS EMPLOYED IN THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KSHATRAPAS. BY SYLVAIN LÉVI.
Translated, with the author's permission and revision, from the "Journal Asiatique," 1902, I., pp. 95 to 125, under the direction of J. BURGESS, C.I.E.
[The question as, to the riod when Sanskrit came to supersede the Prakrits for secular purposes, and as to the influences under which that happened, is one of considerable interest, from the historical as well as the literary point of view. Amongst the epigraphic records of India, the earliest known composition of appreciable length in pure literary Sanskrit is the Girnar inscription of A. D. 150 of the king Rudradaman, a member of a dynasty, ruling in Kathiawar and neighbouring parts, which is conveniently known as that of the Kshatrapas. In its leading characteristics, that inscription is unique, even amongst the records of that dynasty. But other records of the Kshatrapas. and some of the legends on their coins, exhibit a tendency in the direction of the employment of Sanskrit. On the other hand, in the records of other dynasties contemporaneous with the earlier Kshatrapas, Sanskrit exhibits itself in only isolated expressions of a religious or a ceremonious nature; for the same period, it is elsewhere met with only in short votive inscriptions of private individuals, which similarly belong to the religious category, and even in them in only a hesitating and uncertain form: and it is only when we come to the Imperial Gupta period, from A. D. 320 onwards, that we find Sanskrit of the well-established literary type in general use for public purposes. The conclusions are, that, curious as it may seem, the development of literary Sanskrit, and the supersession of the Prakrits by Sanskrit for official and other purposes, were brought about, not by indigenous Indian rulers, but by foreign invaders, the Kshatrapas; and that the explanation is to be found in a liberal-mindedness in matters of religion, which led those invaders to support a popular movement in the direction of utilising for general purposes a language which previously had been held so sacred that it could be employed only in connection with religion. This is the thenie of the article by M. Sylvain Lévi, of which a translation is now offered. In revising the translation, M. Lévi has made a few additions to his original remarks. And, with these additions, the article may be regarded as an up-to-date exposition of a topic which is of very leading importance in connection with the early history of India. EDITOR.]
THE Kshatrapa kings who ruled over Kathiawar and the country beyond, from the year 78 to the end of the IVth century A. D., employ singular titles in their epigraphic protocol which demand attention. Beginning with Nahapana, the founder of the dynasty (inscription of the minister Ayama at Junnar), they regularly take and receive the title of svamin in epigraphic documents, which title, however, figures in the legends on their coinonly after Yasodaman (254 of the Kshatrapa era). The inscription of Rudradaman at Girna (72 Ksh.), in mentioning the name of Svami-Chashtana, grandfather of the reigning princ. adds thereto the epithet sugrihita-naman. And the Jasdan inscription (127 Ksh.), stating the genealogy of raja mahakshatrapa svämi Rudrasena, joins to the name of each of his royal ancestors (Chashtana, Jayadaman, Rudradaman, Rudrasimha) the epithet bhadramukha. With the exception of the Mahakūta inscription, mentioned further on, I do not know another instance, elsewhere in Indian epigraphy, in which any of these three titles [98] is applied 1. a royal personage. But all three are found in a special category of literary productions where on the contrary, their use is absolutely definite.
Bharata, the legislator of the theatre and everything pertaining to the same, treating of those appellations in use in dramatic language, prescribes:
svāmi tu yuvarājas tu kumarō bhartṛidārakaḥ |
saumya bhadramukhēty ēvam hepūrvam vadhamam vadēt II
[Natya-sastra, xvii. p. 75.]
