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A Paramāra Sculpture in the British Museum
(c) Translation
Om! Having first fashioned the Vidyadhari of the city of the illustrious and shining Emperor Bhoja, ( as also ) Mother Sarasvati which was installed in the city ruled by Amareśa (that is, Amaresvara ), he who is of humble talent (that is, Manathala) fashioned thereafter the triad of the Jinas (and) the auspicious image of Amba that has great brilliance and bestows fortunes evermore. Blessings. Fashioned by Manathala, son of the sculptor Mahira, and inscribed by the scribe (?) Śivadeva in Samvat
1091.
The inscription has still not been finally deciphered (and will perhaps never be, as some characters have been obliterated because of the fissure); some phrases, such as amareśaśāsitapura and nityaphaladhikā have an element of conjecture; the grammar seems to be faulty (while the other divinities are in the accusative, the phrase yapsaraḥ is in the nominative ).
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It is nonetheless clear that Bhayani's reading is a great improvement over all the previous interpretations: -mmandhiḥ of the original makes no sense, but mandadhiḥ of little talent ", as emended, qualifies the sculptor (Manathala) who thus speaks of himself in humble terms. The second foot of the verse, which has been the most intractable so far, has for the first time been read; amareśaśāsitapura "the city ruled by Amaresa", if this emendation is accepted, is without doubt the present-day Onkar Mandhata in East Nimar district of Madhya Pradesh, one of the twelve jyotirlingas, which is mentioned in several other Paramara records besides our own, and which still preserves an eleventh century temple of Amareśvara20. The third charana mentions a trayī, or trivirthi as it is commonly known to us, a group of three Tirthankaras, which was fashioned along with the present image of Amba by the same sculptor, after (paschat) he had made the image of the vidyadhari, (apsaras) and VāgdeviSarasvati. The proposed reading of the text thus gives a connected account of the record; it explains the mention both of Brahmanical and Jaina deities; it shows beyond doubt that the king Bhoja is only mentioned in the verse as the ruling king and not as the donor; but, above all, it authenticates the identification of the goddess with the Jaina yakshi Ambika.
Though Bhoja like the other kings of his line was a Saiva, still he patronised many Jaina monks and scholars, and we may conclude this paper by naming a few of the more prominent. Nayanandi wrote the poem Sudarsanachurita while residing in the Jinavara-vihara at Dhara under Bhoja's patronage. The puranasara was composed by Śrichandra under the
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