Old Bramhi Inscriptions In Udaygiri And Khandagiri

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

Page 31

INSCRIPTION OF KHĀRAVELA
The following inscription, noticed for the first time by Mr. Stirling, is engraved "on the overhanging brow of " the Hathi-Gumphā, better the Bada-Hathi-Gumphả, which is “a natural cavern, very little improved and enlarged by art," and, therefore, "not important from an artistic and architectural point of view." " From the remains which can still be traced in its floor," Dr. Bhagawanlal Indraji is led to think that "the cave had at one time been destroyed, whether by violence or neglect, and had afterwards been repaired and added to.".
“The inscription is carved," says Dr. Indraji, “on the rock which is not perpendicular but bends in. The inscription itself is in seventeen lines occupying a space about eighty-four feet square. The face of the rock does not appear to have been well smooth for the work, but the letters are large and deeply carved. Time and weather have wrought ravages. The first six lines are well preserved. The last four, partly so. The greater part of the intervening space has been much spoilt, portions of it being entirely weather-beaten, while in other portions single letters or groaps of letters can still be made out. The left corner of the inscription, in especial, has been greatly injured, and the initial letters of eight lines in that direction are entirely lost."
Mr. K. P. Jayaswal, who has made the reading, restoration and interpretation of the contents of this important epigraphic record his life's work, writing in 1917, says: “ The rock was roughly dressed on the righthand side. The chisel marks of the dressing are misleading; they tend to produce misreadings. These long and irregular marks left by the original dressing, are not the only pitfalls. Rain-water which trickles down the roof of the cave has cut into the letters and produced & few letter-like marks, Natural decay produced by time has given misleading turns to numerous letters......even hornets like to take liberty with the record of the Emperor Khāravela with perfect impunity and have added a few irregular marks on it....... The inscription is weather-beaten. The first four lines are completely readable. The fifth live has about 13 syllables obliterated by natural decay. Half of the record of the 6th year (L 6) and the entire record of the 7th year (L 7) have disappeared. From the Sth up. to the 15th lines, every line has got large gaps wrought by decay. The 16th and 17th lines are comparatively well-preserved except for the