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210
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1024
The insoription was a well-composed poem which employed Alankaras or figures of speech, and the rules of prosody are nowhere disregarded. The date of the inscription which is given in figures and partly in words is (Vikrama] Samvat 1359, Ashadha vadi 11, Tuesday. The document has not yet been published except for a few remarks based on a somewhat faulty reading published by Babu Harischandra Bharatîndu in his Hindi notes alluded to above, wbich. I venture to translate here and which run as follows:
"A portion of the inscription is missing, and it is therefore not possible to make out the name of the prince who had it engraved. What is known is that at the time referred to there were two brother princes of the Kshatriya race, enlightened and devoted to Vishnu. Their fame spread far and wide, and they caused to be constructed the Manikarnika Ghat which extended from Virêývara to Visvêśvara. In the centre of the Ghat, they had a lofty temple of Manikarnikêśvara-Siva constructed, with large platforms in the middle of it.......... None of thono constructions have now survived. The present temple of Manikarnik@svara is a deep underground chamber and the Virêsvara and Visvėávara temples also oocupy other sites." A comparison of this oxtract with the subjoined text will show the shortoomings of Babu Harischandra's rendering, though it will be seen that he correctly ascertained the main object of the record, namely, the erection of a temple of Manikarnikêsvara by a certain person whose name he could not make out. But his interpretation is wrong inasmuch as he states that this pious man constructed at the same time & ghag of this name, which extended from the temple of Vir&svara to that of Visvê vara, as there is no mention of any such temples, What he read as Visvêsvara is really vaisvanara, which stands for the numeral three, and Virêśvara, mentioned in verse 7, was the name of the builder of the temple whose construction this inscription is intended to record, and not that of a temple as stated by Babu Harisohandra. Nor have the platforms (védikd) of chintamani stone mentioned in v. 4 anything to do with the temple. The whole of the earlier portion of the inscription was devoted to a description of the pedigree of Virêśvara, but who he was cannot be ascertained from the surviving portion of tbe dooument. Babu Harischandra is right in assuming that the temple whose erection is mentioned in this inscription has long since disappeared. I noticed, however, a few arohi. tootural stonos lying on the Manikarnika Ghat, which to judge from the style of their carvings, might well have belonged to this structure. One of these fragments is a door-jamb representing Siva and Parvati.
Text. 1.--v-u v -uv-v
--v-uvu m ago: [1] la
[ gar:)
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Here il
. . . . . . . . . . . . उद्याने निवसत्यमुम्ब निभृतः किनाम कल्पद्रुमः
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- **T&TT Harta P raforat
par 9 Motre-Vasanta-tilalt.
Metro :-Sardalavikridita.
