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

48 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM VOL. III.
the inverted position of the column, upside down; and also disfigured it with an English
inscription, printed in full by General Cunningham, a few letters of which appear in the
lithograph now published. Also, the column, as placed by Mr. Broadley, stands now in the
middle of a house, the roof of which is supported by it; and the last eight lines of the in-
scription, shewn in Dr. Rajendralala Mitra and General Cunningham's lithographs, are now
completely hidden, and rendered quite inaccessible, by a wooden structure placed on the
top, i.e. the proper bottom, of the pillar, in order to connect it with the roof.
The writing originally extended, in the First Part, lines 1 to 13, over four of the
faces of the column, as is shewn by the metres of the extant portion; and in the Second
Part, line 14 ff., over three faces, as is shewn by the number of letters lost in each line.
The extant portion, now lithographed, covers a space of about 1′ 4″ broad by 3′ 5″ high,
and is in a state of fairly good preservation.—The size of the letters varies from ⅜″ to ⅝″.
The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets, and approximate closely to those
of the Allâhâbâd posthumous pillar inscription of Samudragupta, No. 1, p. 1 ff. above,
Plate i. They include, in lines 3 and 11, forms of the numerical symbols for 3, 5, and
30.—The language is Sanskrit; and the inscription is in verse as far as line 10, and
the rest in prose.—In respect of orthography, the only points that call for notice are
(1) the use of the dental nasal, instead of the anusvâra, before ś, in anśa, lines 11 and 13;
(2) the doubling of k and t, in conjunction with a following r, e.g. in chakkrê, line 10
(but not in vikramêṇa, line 3), and pauttrasya, line 17; and (3) the doubling of dh, in
conjunction with a following y, in anuddhyâta, line 22.
The first part of the inscription, which is not dated, mentions the Early Gupta
king Kumâragupta, and seems to have recorded the name of his wife, which is not
given in any of the other inscriptions; her name, however, is lost in the part that has
peeled off. But this part of the inscription seems to belong, like the second, to the time
of his son and successor Skandagupta, from the mention of apparently a village named
Skandaguptabaṭa, in line 11. This part of the inscription records the erection of the
column, which in line 10 is called a yûpa or ‘sacrificial post,’ apparently by some
minister whose sister had become Kumâragupta’s wife. And the inscription further
recorded certain shares in the village of Skandaguptabaṭa (?), and in another agra-
hâra, the name of which is lost. From the mention of Skanda, or Kârttikêya, and the
divine Mothers, in line 9, this part of the inscription seems to have belonged to the Śaiva
form of worship, in its Śâkta or Tântrika development.¹
The second part, which also contains no date, is a record of Skandagupta. Not
enough of it remains to shew the form of religion to which it belonged, or to indicate
clearly its purport.
¹ Compare the undoubted instance of this, in the same period, in the Gangdhâr inscription of
Viśvavarman, No. 17 below.—The mâtaraḥ or mâtṛigaṇa, ‘the divine Mothers,’ are ‘the personified
energies (śakti) of the principal deities.’ They are closely connected with the worship of the god
Śiva. Originally they were seven in number,—Brâhmî or Brahmâṇî, Vaishṇavî, Mâhêśvarî, Kaumârî
Vârâhî, Aindrî or Indrâṇî or Mahêndrî, and Châmuṇḍâ,—as representing the Pleiades, the seven
mothers or nurses of Kârttikêya, the son of Śiva. Afterwards the number was increased to eight,
nine, sixteen, and various other figures. The chief object of the Śâkta or Tântrika worship now is
Pârvatî, Durgâ, or Mâhêśvarî, the wife and female energy of Śiva; especially under the name of
Jagadambâ, ‘the mother of the universe.’—Not long after this period, Svâmi-Mahâsêna, or Kârttikêya,
and the divine Mothers, “the seven mothers of mankind,” appear as special objects of worship, and
tutelary deities, of the Early Kadambas (e. g. Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 27), and of the Early Chalukyas
(e.g. Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 162; Vol. VI. p. 74; and Vol. XIII. p. 137 f.)