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FOREWORD
240/6460 = 244414 (?)
o = sqrt in compounds with words like fore, HTC, FA, PIRATE Some of these abbreviations are problematic, if not enigmatic. I shall content myself here with one such inscription, which came to my random notice, with two none-too-obvious abbreviations. Inscription No. 751 uses twice as an abbreviation prefixed to the names of the father and the son and yo also thrice. The inscription runs as follows:
po 1525 pa do do 11 at atitueitaiki-f41cialcite 240 HT HTO ang a व्य० महिराजाभिधेन भार्या लाडी पुत्र गांगा-चांपा-नरदे प्र० समस्तकुटुंबयुतेन श्रीमुनिसुव्रतस्वामिबिंब का० प्र० श्रीवृद्धतपापक्षे प्र० भट्टारक श्रीश्रीश्रीज्ञानसागर (सूरि?) भिः।।
The letters do do obviously stand for axira afa suggesting the month and the pakşa before the tithi pohlavit indicated by the number eleven. As for the preceding the two male names oth and wifere, it is probable that it stands for 29474 or burit, indicating their hereditary profession, analogous to s frequently standing for $81. About the three usages of to, the second one juxtaposed with ato is the common contraction of ufafon following Foto for afd. The last 9 prefixed to ERC it..... may also stand for the same word प्रतिष्ठितं or probably प्रतिष्ठापितं in this case as it is connected with the name of the teacher who organised and directed the installation. But the first fo either suffixed to the names of the three sons or prefixed to 4461 5e cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be explained in the same manner. From the context, I hazarded the conjecture that it might stand for some word like gafa or wa to denote the other names of the family members not specifically mentioned. It is interesting to note that this is borne out by a few other inscriptions (e.g. nos. 414, 861,866, 867), where the full form प्रमुख is used with कुटुम्ब or निजकुटुम्ब. Though ra is the word more commonly used, 7qfa is also found used occasionally (e.g. nos. 406,1242 etc.). Likewise, the other suggestion made here by me that may be an abbreviation of 494r certainly gains positive support from the use of go as an abbreviation in Inscription No.603, where too it precedes the name of the male head of the family.
There are a number of such improvised abbreviations, which unfold themselves easily in the context as they are usually used after the full form of the word is used once. Two such cases are दो for दोशी । दोसी and सो for सोनी. The abbreviations could be deciphered with certainty only because the abbreviated forms were found used side by side with the full form in the same
