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

72 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM. VOL. III.
the slayer of a Brâhmaṇ, shall go down (into hell), invested with (the guilt of) those (well-
known) five sins,¹ together with the minor sins.²

No. 17; PLATE X.

GANGDHAR STONE INSCRIPTION OF VISVAVARMAN.

THE YEAR 480.

THIS inscription, which is now published for the first time, was brought to my notice
in 1883, through a photograph sent to me by Colonel W. Muir, then Political Agent at
Kôṭâ in Central India.
Gaṅgdhâr³ is a village about fifty-two miles south-west of Jhâlrâpâṭaṇ, the chief
town of the Jhâlâwâḍ⁴ State in the Western Mâlwa division of Central India. The
inscription is on a stone-tablet standing under a tamarind-tree about a mile to the north
of the village; evidently on the site of an old ruined temple.
At the top of the stone there is some sculpture, which I cannot quite make out in the
rough drawing of it that was brought to me with the ink-impression; but it is probably a
sixteen-leaved waterlily.—The writing covers the entire front of the stone, about 2' 0¾"
high by 3' 8" broad. Twelve letters are broken away and lost in the first part of line 1;
eleven in line 2; three in line 3; and two or three all the way down from there as far as
line 36. In lines 4 to 36, however, it is in most cases easy to supply what has been lost.
In lines 37 to 40, again, from three to six letters are broken away at the beginning, and
from two to four at the end of each line. The inscription was thus of a somewhat
irregular shape, lines 1 to 6 and 37 to 41 being rather longer than lines 7 to 36; which
looks as if the stone on which it was engraved was a panel in the wall of a temple.—The
size of the letters varies from about ⅜" to ⁹⁄₁₆". The characters belong to the southern
class of alphabets; and give a specimen of what may be called the Western Mâlwa
alphabet of the fifth century A.D. They include, however, in khaḍga, line 5, and in
several other places, not merely a separate form of the lingual ḍ, as distinct from the
dental d, in accordance with the custom of the northern alphabets, but a quite unique
form of it, which does not occur in any other early inscription that I know of, and which
is the clear prototype of the modern Dêvanâgarî form of this letter. They also include
the very rare initial au, in aupamya, line 6.—The language is Saṁskṛit; and except for
the words siddhir=astu at the end, the inscription is in verse throughout.—In respect of
orthography, we have to notice (1) the use of the jihvâmûlîya, e.g. in chakitaik=kriyatê,
¹ i.e. the pañcha mahâpâtakâni; see page 38 above, note 4.
² The upanipâtakâni,—or more usually upapâtakâni; the longer form being used in this verse
for the sake of the metre,—are sins of the second degree, such as killing a cow, sacrificing for those
for whom sacrifices ought not to be made, &c.. &c.: see the Mânavadharmaśâstra, xi. 60 to 67, Bur-
nell's Translation, p. 332 f.
³ The 'Gangrar, Gungra, and Gungurar,' of maps. Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 35. Lat. 23° 56' N.;
Long. 75° 41' E.—The modern name must be connected with Gargarâ, the ancient name, according to
line 23 of this inscription, of the small river, now called 'Kalisind,' on which it stands. But it is not
apparent how the dental dh came to be introduced into it; nor why it appears as r in the corrupt
English forms.
⁴ The 'Jhalawar, Jhallawar, and Jhallowa,' of maps, &c.