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As succeeding letters of this inscription are missing no correct meaning can be traced out. From the first two lines it is clear that in the year 84, of some era, this inscription was got engraved. It perhaps refers to the construction of Jain structure by Sali Malini. D.C. Sircar suggests its date as 1st century B.C., basing on the date of Sunga Bhagavata's inscription of Bhilsa. C.S. Upasaka takes it not earlier than second century B.C. G.H, Ojha ascribes it to 443 B.C., while K.P. Jayasawal gives its date as 374-373 B.C. In this way the following problems are still connected with this inscription.
(i) Whether this inscription is connected with Jainism ?
(ii) Whether it is a Pre-Mauryan record ?
The word “Vira" is apparently connected with Lord Mahavir. Therefore, the inscription relates to Jainism. Recently from Darah (Dist. Kota) inscriptions datable to 2nd century B.C. mentioning the names of some Sramanas are noticedii. This also indicates that the Jaina were having close relations with the southern Rajasthan. No other meaning of first letter can be taken.
It is very difficult to conclude about specific date of this inscription. According to our present state of knowledge no such definite inference can be taken. A good number of scholars take the Mahasthan stone plaques inscription, the Sahayaura copper plate, the Piparahwa Buddhist vase inscription, the Taxila coin Brahmi legend and the Bhatti-prollu rock casket inscription including this Badali stone inscription as the Pre-Mauryan records12. Their main arguments are based on palaeographical details and its variations. They believe that the Brahmi script of the time of Asoka was consciously improved from some earlier Brahmi scripts. Therefore, whole problem is to be studied without any preconceived ideas. The theory that the Brahmi script was invented during the reign of Asoka was ably challenged by
11. This inscription was recently noticed
by Giriraj Kumar. He has now revised its reading. 12. R.B, Pandey, op.cit., pp.19-21.
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