Old Bramhi Inscriptions In Udaygiri And Khandagiri

Author(s): Benimadhab Barua
Publisher: University of Calcutta

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PREFACE
published his edition in 1907 in the Acts du Sixieme Congres International des Orientalistes.
I knew quite well that Mr. K. P. Jayaswal stood foremost amongst those who had tried, in recent times, to carry on the work commenced by Indraji, and that he was the scholar and epigraphist to whom the Indologists would ever remain indebted for his untiring energy in leaving no stone unturned to make the contents of Khāravela's inscription known to the world and to emphasize their importance and value. In spite of the fact that he achieved much by way of orientation of the opening and concluding paragraphs of the Hāthi-Gumphā text, I felt that his treatment of the subject left room for a good deal of revision and supplementation.
Making it a point of duty to take best guidance from the publications of previous scholars and epigraphists, from Stirling, Kittoe and Prinsep to Jayaswal and Banerji, I essayed since 1925 with the aid of Locke's plaster-cast in the Calcutta Museum and with the aid of the eye-copies and estampages within my access to probe into secrets of the Hāthi-Gumphā text. And realising that the study of this important text would be incomplete without that of other old Brāhmi inscriptions in the Udayagiri and Khaņdagiri caves, I thought it would be worth while also to carefully examine their readings and renderings published by Prinsep, Cunningham and Indraji, and finally by Mr. R. D. Banerji in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIII. Examining and re-examining these shorter inscriptions as they appeared on original stones, plaster-casts and facsimiles, I was able to detect certain palpable mistakes in previous publications standing badly in need of correction.
This in itself, as I believed, was a sufficient justification for venturing a fresh undertaking. But it seemed to be no less a justification that Khāravela's inscription in the Hathi. Gumphā and the remaining old Brāhmi inscriptions in the Udayagiri and Khaņdagiri caves, were not studied before in