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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 2, PLATE II A. 19
40, Plate xxvi.; the Râypur plates of Mahâ-Sudêvarâja, No 41, Plate xxvii.; the Vâkâṭaka
inscriptions, Nos. 53 to 56, Plates xxxiii. xxxiv. and xxxv.; and the Râjim plates of Tîvara
dêva, No. 81, Plate xlv. The chief characteristic of it is the peculiar 'box-headed' tops
of the letters, formed by sinking four short strokes in the shape of a square and leaving a
block of stone or copper in the centre of them. We have a variation of this characteris-
tic, represented in this volume by the Majhgawâṁ plates of the Mahârâja Hastin of the
year 191, No. 23, Plate xiv., in which the tops of the letters, instead of being 'box-headed'
or square, are 'nail-headed' or triangular, with the apex of the triangle downwards.¹ And
the present inscription contains a mixture of both types; the 'nail-headed' tops can be seen
in, for instance, prithu-râghav-âdyâḥ, line 8, and samudraguptaḥ, line 10; and the 'box-
headed' tops in, for instance, bahu-putra-pautra, line 19, and samara-karmma parâkkram-
êddhaṁ, line 21. Owing to the nature of the substance worked on, in the case of inscrip-
tions on stone, except those on a large scale, these centre blocks would obviously be very
liable to injury; in the actual process of engraving, as well as from the wear and tear of
time. The result is that, though these two characteristics of this alphabet are usually
very well preserved and are very recognisable in the copper-plates, in the stone
inscriptions they are preserved, so as to be clearly recognised in this series of Plates, only
in the large-scale Nachnê-kî-talâî inscriptions of the Mahârâja Prithivishêṇa, Nos. 53
and 54, Plate xxxiiiA. and B. In the present inscription I cannot find a single instance
in which there is enough left of the triangular or the square centres of the tops of the
letters, to shew distinctly in the lithograph. It is, in fact, quite possible that, in inscrip-
tions of this scale on stone, the engraver was not very particular about leaving the centre-
blocks at all; an indifference about this is certainly observable even in the Chammak
plates of the Mahârâja Pravarasêna II., No. 55, Plate xxxiv., through nearly the whole
of which the tops of the letters were scooped out hollow, without any centre-blocks at all.
The characters include, in the numbering of the verses, forms of the numerical symbols
for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.—The language is Saṅskṛit; and the inscription is in verse through-
out.—In respect of orthography, the only points that call for notice are (1) the use of
the guttural nasal, instead of the anusvâra, before h, in paribriṅhaṇa, line 26; and (2)
the doubling of k and dh, in conjunction with a following r, in vikkrama, line 1, and
parâkkrama, lines 17 and 21; and in ddhrutam, line 12.
The inscription is one of the Early Gupta king Samudragupta, whose name
is recorded in line 10. From the occurrence of the word babhûva in line 9, the first part
of the inscription probably mentioned some of his ancestors. But, that the inscription did
not extend to the time of any of his successors, is shewn by the fact that none of their
names can be fitted into any of the places where letters are illegible in lines 11 to 24;
consequently, the prowess, &c., described in these lines are those of Samudragupta; and
this description is immediately followed by the mention of the erection, at the city of
Airikiṇa, i.e. Êraṇ, of something or other of which the stone was either a portion or the
separate record. The lacunæ here leave us without any clue as to what was erected, and
in connection with what form of religion. But, judging from its shape and appearance,
¹ Mr. C. Bendall has obtained two specimens of triangular-headed characters, one of them in
Nêpâl, in which, differing from the present forms, the apex of the triangle is placed uppermost; see
his Journey in Nêpâl, p. 54 f. He appears to have named them 'point-headed' or 'arrow-headed'
characters.—Quite recently, Mr. J. Robinson, C.E., of Gayâ, has sent me, for examination, another
very interesting specimen of a variety of the same characters in an inscription on the bottom plate
of a brass image of Buddha.
D 2.