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JOLY, 1913.)
NOTE OF THE MANDASOR INSCRIPTION
199
NOTE OF THE MANDASOR INSCRIPTION OF NARAVARMAN.
BY SIR DR. R. G. BHANDARKAR, K. C. I. E., &o.; POONA. In my article on the epoch of the Gupta era published in Jour. Bomb. As. Soc., Vol. XVII. I have stated, (p. 92) “the date 493 occurring in that (Mandasor) inscription is referred to the event of the Ganastbiti of the Malavas. What this ovent was exactly and when it took place we do not know." The impression of a new inscription recently discovered at Mandagor, prepared by Mr, D. B. Bhandarker of the Archaeological department and shown to me by him, enables me to make a contribution towards an olacidation of the point. The verse giving the date is thus worded :
श्रीमालवगणामाते प्रशस्ते कृतसज्ञिते ।
- एकपष्टपधिके प्राप्ले समाशतचतुष्टये॥ The translation is :-"the excellent quaternion of hundreds of years increased by sixty-one laid down authoritatively by the Malava-gana and named Kțita having arrived." The word amndta means
laid down,'-authoritatively of course,-Bince what is amndta is to be treated with respect and ecrupulously followed, In ATC: atq: the sense is: the Samdmndya (Nighanfus or thesaurii) has been laid down (Nirukta I, 1). Similarly we are told in I, 20, that the later Rishis samamwasishuh, i. e., laid down authoritatively or composed this work, and the Vedas and the subordinate treatises. In a TOTIATTE (Vedantasátra I, 4, 25) amndta has the same sense. In the present case therefore the sense is : the year 461 has arrived which has been laid down authoritatively by the Gaņa of the Malavas. This authoritative laying down cannot be predicated of this one year only but of all previous and subsequent years. If these years were laid down by the Gana, they must either be so by their having composed a long list or directed that the years following & certain event should be ordinally numbered. Since & list must go on ad infinitum, i. e., be interminable, the former supposition cannot be accepted. The gana of the Malayas, therefore, must be supposed to have directed the use of an era beginning with a certain specific event. What must be the specific event? Light is thrown on this point by the following Verse occurring in Yasodharman's inscription at Mandasor :
पक्षस शतेषु शरणं यातेष्वेकाननवतिसहितेषु ।
मालवगणस्थितिवशात् कालज्ञानाय लिखितेषु॥ " Five hundred and eighty-nine years written down for the purpose of knowing the time in consequence (ablativo) of the moment [moving cause or impelling force (vasa)] of the condition as & gana or compact political body of the Malavas having elapsed." That the word vasa should be anderstood as the moment or impelling cause is confirmed by the manner in which the date is kiven in Bandhu varman's Mandasor inscription. The words are :
मालवानां गणस्थित्वा याते पातचतुष्टये।
frefas .................. 11 The sense is : "four hundred and ninety-three years having elapsed since the condition (i.., formation of the Malavas as a gana." Ganasthityd is to be taken as an ablative, the visargu having been dropped in consequence of the following soft consonant. This then was an era, the impelling cause of which was the sthiti of the Malavas as a gana, that is, it was the era of the formation of the Malayas 88 & gana, i. e., their forming a body corporate or body politic.
The Malaves were originally « tribe which followed the occupation of fighting. They were soldiers by profession, and could entet any body's service as such, and did not form a gana or an incorporated society for political and other purposes. Yâjsavalkya, speaking of a person who takes away the wealth of gana, necessarily implies that a gana is a corporate community with common property and common interest (II, 187). Occurring side by side in ibid, II, 192 with treni a gaild, and naigama or a body of merchants trading with foreign countries, gana must mean a body corporate of persons following the same occupation such as that of fighting (Vijña. nekvara and Apardrka). I translate ganasthiti as existence or condition as a gana. It should be taken as • Karmadharaya or oppositional compound ( uret f ri. e. T hat or T7591 Para:). It cannot be taken as TTFU kafa For in Bandhuvarman's inscription the expression WHAT Tuffert would in that case involve what is called Ekadesi anvaya or the latter part would be a sdpeksha compound, i. o., Malavdndm would have to be connected with gana, i, e., the first or subordinate part of the following compound and not with athiti the principal part, as it should be. When we take the compound as a Karmadharaya, Malaván&m is to be connected with athiti which is the principal noun as qualified by the word gana. A gana or a corporate and poli
