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

sula in the Bombay Presidency. The city itself, or its ancient representative, is spoken of
in this inscription; but its ancient name is not given. The name occurs, however, in line
1 of Rudradâman's inscription,¹ as Girinagara, or 'the city of, or on, the hill.' This
name subsequently passed over to the mountain itself, Girnâr, which in the inscriptions is
called Ûrjayat; and this fact rather tends to indicate that the ancient city stood, not
where the modern town stands, but closer up to the mountain, and perhaps on the rising
ground at the foot of it. The inscription is on the north-west face of a large granite bould-
er, containing also fourteen Asôka edicts and a long inscription of the Mahâkshatrapa
Rudradâman, now under a shed specially built to protect it, about a mile to the east of the
town, and at the commencement of the gorge that leads to the valley which lies round the
mountain Girnâr.
The writing, which covers a space of about 10' 0" broad by 7' 3" high, is in a state of
fairly good preservation; and it is only in line 22 ff., where the rock has actually peeled off,
that there are any extensive lacunæ in the inscription. It is, however, not very easy to
read; owing partly to the irregular, and occasionally rather shallow, nature of the engrav-
ing; partly to the roughness of the rock, and the way in which the natural marks of it
mix themselves up a good deal with the letters; and partly to the fact that at several
places the engraver, in consequence of unusual irregularities of the surface, passed over con-
siderable portions of the rock and left them blank.²—The size of the letters varies from
about ⁷/₈" to 1¼". The characters belong to the southern class of alphabets; but the type
is a later development of that which was used in the inscription of the Mahâkshatrapa
Rudradâman on the same rock;³ it may be called the Saurâshṭra or Kâthiâwâḍ alphabet
of the fifth century A.D. One of its most marked characteristics is the way in which the
subscript y is represented by the full form of the letter, not, as in other alphabets, by a cur-
tailment of it; e.g. in buddhyâ, line 5; vyasanî, line 6; and nyâyâ, line 8.—The
language is Sanskrit; and, except for the opening word siddham, and a few words in line
23, the entire inscription is in verse.—In respect of orthography we have to notice (1) the
use of the guttural nasal, instead of the anusvâra, before ś, in vaṅśa, line 24; (2) the
doubling of dh in conjunction with a following y, in buddhyâ, line 5; and (3) the indifference
about the doubling of consonants in conjunction with a preceding r; e.g. the consonant
is doubled in ârttham, line 1, ârttir, line 2, and darppô, line 3; but not in vîryô, line 2,
paryanta, line 3, sarvân, line 5, ârjavau, line 7, and ârjanê=rthasya, line 8.
The first part of the inscription refers itself to the reign of the Early Gupta king
Skandagupta; and, after an invocation of the god Vishṇu and five verses in praise of
the reigning king, it narrates how he appointed a certain Parṇadatta to govern his
territories in the Surâshṭras or the Kâthiâwâḍ country. In his turn, Parṇadatta
appointed his son, Chakrapâlita, to govern the city at which the inscription is. The
inscription then proceeds to its real object; viz. to record that, "making the calculation
in the reckoning of the Guptas,"⁴ in the year one hundred and thirty-six (A.D. 455-56),
¹ Archæol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. II. p. 128.
² These blank spaces lie especially on each side of the large natural fissure running almost down
the centre of the inscription.
³ Archæol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. II. p. 128, Pl. xiv.
⁴ As is quite clear even in the lithograph with which Bhau Daji worked, the correct reading here
(line 15) is Gupta-prakâlê gaṇanâṁ vidhâya; not Guptasya kâlâ[d]=gaṇanâṁ vidhâya, "counting
from the era of Gupta," as it was taken to be by Bhau Daji and was afterwards specifically confirmed