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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS: No. 5, PLATE III B. 29
No. 5; PLATE III B.
SANCHI STONE INSCRIPTION OF CHANDRAGUPTA II.
THE YEAR 93.
THIS inscription was first brought to notice in 1834, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc.
Vol. III. p. 488 ff., where a lithograph of it was published (id. Plate xxviii.), reduced
by Mr. James Prinsep from a copy by Mr. B. H. Hodgson. This lithograph was not
accompanied by any details of the contents of the inscription ; and it is a very imperfect
one ; especially in shewing no traces whatever of the first six or seven letters of each line,
all the way down.—And in 1837, in the same Journal, Vol. VI. p. 451 ff., Mr. Prinsep pub-
lished his reading of the text, and a translation of it,¹ accompanied by a lithograph,
reduced from copies on cloth and paper made by Captain Edward Smith, of the Engineers
(id. Plate xxv.)
**Sâñchi, or Sâchi,**² is a village about twelve miles to the north-east of Dîwângañj, the
chief town of the Dîwângañj Tahsîl or Sub-Division of the Native State of Bhôpâl or
Bhûpâl³ in Central India. It is sometimes called Sâñchi-Kânâkhêḍâ, through its name
being coupled with that of another small village immediately on the north of it.
The writing, which covers a space of about 2′ 6¼″ broad by 1′ 9″ high, is on the
outer side of the top rail in the second row, outside and on the south side of the eastern

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Purâṇa, the title of one of the Purâṇas, dedicated especially to the glorification of Vishṇu ; and
Bhâgavata, which occurs in line 7 of the Khôh plates of the Mahârâja Jayanâtha of the year 177,
No. 27 below, Plate xvii., and is, to the present time, the name of one of the Vaishṇava sects.
—It may be taken, therefore, that Paramabhâgavata is exclusively a Vaishṇava title.
¹ The translation is reprinted in Thomas’ edition of Prinsep’s Essays, Vol. I. p. 246.
² Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 53. Lat. 23° 28′ N.; Long. 77° 48′ E.—The ‘Sachi, Sacha Kana
Kheyra, and Sachi Kanakera,’ of maps, &c. — The name is pronounced both Sâñchi and Sâchi ;
but with a preference, as far as my observation went, for the nasalised form. The alternative forms
have already been pointed out by Gen. Cunningham in Bhilsa Topes, p. 181, where he suggests that
the name is most probably only the spoken form of the Saṁskṛit śânti, ‘tranquillity, calmness,’ &c.,—
since the term śânti-samgha, ‘the community of tranquillity,’ occurs in the Aśôka inscription at
Sâñchi (Bhilsa Topes, p. 259 ff. and Plate xix. No. 177); and since the Chinese transcribed śânti
by sa-chi. But the ancient name of Sâñchi, at least from the Aśôka to the Gupta period, was
Kâkanâda (see page 31 below, para. 5); and this seems to indicate that the name Sâñchi is of com-
paratively modern introduction. Also, though I could not find the places on the map, I was
informed that there are at least two other villages in the neighbourhood, named Sâñchi or Sâchi,
with no Buddhist remains at them. And this,—with the analogous names of Kâchi-Kânâkhêḍâ,
a village about one and a half miles to the south-west of Sâñchi (in which kâchi is either an Urdu,
or a Rângaḍî or local vernacular, word, meaning ‘gardener’), and of Mâchi, a village somewhere in
the same neighbourhood, which I noticed in a local topographical map, but cannot now find again in
the Indian Atlas,—suggests that Sâñchi or Sâchi is probably a vernacular name, connected in no
way with the Saṁskṛit.
³ This name is written and pronounced Bhôpâl by Musalmâns, and Bhûpâl by Hindus. It has
been suggested that it is a corruption of Bhôj-pâl, ‘the tank or embankment of king Bhoja.’ But
I think it is far more likely that the original and correct name is Bhûpâl, from the Saṁskṛit bhûpâla,
‘a king, or the king.’ The State, however, is a Musalmân State; and Bhôpâl is the form of the
name that has been established by long official usage.