गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

2 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. IX. p. cxcvi. ff.,
Dr. Bhau Daji notified, from a copy on cloth made by Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji, some
corrections in the historical part, in the names of the kings and countries conquered by
Samudragupta.¹
The round monolith sandstone column, thirty-five feet in height, on which this inscrip-
tion is, dates from the third century B.C., as is shewn by the famous edicts of Aśôka on it. It
now stands in a conspicuous position inside the Fort at Allahâbâd (properly Ilâhâbâd), the
seat of Government of the North-West Provinces. It is doubtful, however, whether the
column was originally erected at this place, or whether, as has been suggested by General
Cunningham,² it was first set up at the ancient Kauśâmbî, now represented by the village
of Kôsam³ on the left bank of the Jamnâ, about twenty-eight miles west by south from
Allahâbâd; and, being still at that place when the present inscription was engraved,
was afterwards moved from there to Allahâbâd by one of the early Musalmân kings
of Dehli, just as the two Aśôka columns now at Dehli were brought there from original
positions at Mêraṭh and in the Siwâlik hills. The points in favour of the latter supposi-
tion are (1) that the column contains a short Aśôka edict addressed to the rulers of
Kauśâmbî;⁴ and (2) that the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang makes no mention of this
column in his account of Po-lo-ye-kia, i.e. Prayâga or Allahâbâd.⁵
The writing, which covers a space of about 6′ 8″ broad by 5′ 4″ high, commences on
the north of the column, towards the north-east, and in the longest part, line 30, runs all
round the column, except for a space of about 1′ 9.″ The bottom line is about 6′ 0″ above
the point where the column starts from its present pedestal. There is a large crack in the
column, from above the first word of the first line, and extending down to the beginning
of the fourteenth. And the upper part of the inscription has suffered very much, partly
from some of the mediæval inscriptions, which are so abundant on the column, being
engraved on and between the original lines here, and partly from the peeling off of the
surface of the stone in several places. But nothing of a historical nature appears to have
been lost; except, perhaps, after the mention of Nâgasêna in line 13, and in connection
with the mention of Pushpapura in line 14. A few letters, again, have been damaged or
destroyed by the peeling off of the stone near the beginning of line 23, and in the centre
of lines 23, 24, 31, and 32; but, except in line 32, the letters can be supplied without
any doubt. The really important part of the inscription, the historical and genealogical
passages commencing with line 19 and ending in line 30, is fortunately in a state of
¹ This notice was published in 1872; but it was read before the Society two years earlier, on
the 11th August 1870. It records that Dr. Bhau Daji submitted to the Society a revised facsimile,
text, and translation, of the inscription; but they do not appear to have been ever published, or to be
now forthcoming. His suggestions were perhaps more correct in his own notes, than in the form in
which they stand printed in the Journal.
² Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. I. p. 39.
³ The ‘Kosam and Kosim Kheraj’ of maps; about eight miles to the south of Karârî, the chief
town of the Karârî Parganâ in the Manjhanpur or Mânjhandpur Tahsîl or Sub-Division of the Allah-
âbâd District. . Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 88. Lat. 25° 20′ N.; Long. 81° 27′ E.
⁴ Corp. Inscr. Indic. Vol. I. pp. 39, 116, 141, and Pl. xxii.; see also after the end of line 10 of
the present inscription in the Plate now published.
⁵ Beal's Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. I. p. 230 ff.; Stanislas Julien's Hiouen
Thsang, Vol. II. p. 276 ff.—At the same time, it must be noted that Hiuen Tsiang also makes no
mention of any such column in his immediately following account of Kiau-shang-mi or Kauśâmbî.