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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 18, PLATE XI. 79
No. 18; PLATE XI.
MANDASOR STONE INSCRIPTION OF KUMARAGUPTA
AND BANDHUVARMAN.
THE MALAVA YEARS 493 AND 529.
THIS inscription, which I published, for the first time, in 1886, in the Ind. Ant. Vol.
XV. p. 194 ff., was discovered through information given by the late Mr. Arthur
Sulivan, who, in 1879, sent to General Cunningham, from Mandasôr, a hand-copy of the
fragmentary pillar inscription of Yaśôdharman, No. 34 below, Plate xxiC. I saw this
copy in 1883, and, recognising in it the name of Mihirakula, sent my copyists, in March
1884, to take impressions of this fragment and of any other inscriptions that they might
find. In the search made by them, they discovered the present inscription, and also the
entire duplicate copy of the pillar inscription of Yaśôdharman, No. 33 below, Plate xxiB.,
which had escaped the notice of Mr. Sulivan.
**Mandasôr,**¹ or more properly Daśôr, the ancient **Daśapura,**² on the north or left

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¹ The 'Mandesar, Mandesor, Mandesur, Mandisore, Mandosar, Mandsaur, Mundesor, and
Mundesoor,' of maps, &c. Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 35. Lat. 24° 3' N.; Long. 75° 8' E.
² Daśôr is the name by which, in preference to Mandasôr, the town is habitually spoken of by the
villagers and agriculturists of the locality and neighbourhood, and even as far as Indôr. And in some
bilingual sanads or warrants, of about a century and a half ago, I found this form, Daśôr, used in the
vernacular passages, while the Persian passages of the same documents give the form Mandasôr. So
also, Paṇḍits still habitually use the form Daśapura in their correspondence; a practice with which
we may compare the use, also by Paṇḍits, of Ahipura and Nakhapura for respectively Sampgaum and
Ugargôl in the Belgaum District; except that it is doubtful whether these are original Saṁskṛit names,
or only pedantic Saṁskṛit translations of original vernacular names.—The local explanation of the
name is, that the place was originally a city of the Purâṇic king Daśaratha. But, on this view, the
modern name should be Dasrathôr. The true explanation evidently is that,—just as now the town-
ship includes from twelve to fifteen outlying hamlets or divisions; Khilchîpur, Jankûpurâ, Râmpuriyâ,
Chandrapurâ, Bâlâgañj, &c.,—so, when it was originally constituted, it included exactly ten (daśa)
such hamlets (pura).—As regards the fuller form of Mandasôr, by which alone the town is known
officially and is entered in maps, I cannot at present explain the origin of it. But Dr. Bhagwanlal
Indraji suggested to me that it may perhaps represent Manda-Daśapura, "the distressed or afflicted
Daśapura," in commemoration of the overthrow of the town, and the destruction of the Hindu tem-
ples in it, by the Musalmâns, in memory of which, even to the present day, the Nâgar Brâhmaṇs of
the place will not drink the water there. And, as tending to support this suggestion, I would mention
that one of the Paṇḍits whom I questioned on the spot, gave me Mannadasôr as another form of the
name. Another suggestion, by Mr. F. S. Growse, is that the name combines the two names of Maḍ
and Daśapura; the former of them (see Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 195) being the name of a village, also
called Afzalpur, about eleven miles south-east of Mandasôr, from which, it is said, were brought, from
ruined Hindu temples, the stones that were used in the construction of the Musalmân fort at Manda-
sôr. The true explanation, whatever it may be, would probably be found in the Daśapura-Mâhât-
mya, which is extant, but which I did not succeed in obtaining for examination.—In addition to the
present inscription, the ancient Saṁskṛit name, Daśapura, occurs also in line 2 of an early Nâsik in-
scription of Ushavadâta (Archæol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 99, and Plate lii. No. 5); and in
another inscription at Mandasôr itself, dated (Vikrama)-Saṁvat 1321 (A.D. 1264-65) Guru(vâra) or
Thursday, the fifth day of the bright fortnight of the month Bhâdrapada, which is on a white stone
built into the wall on the left hand inside the inner gate of the eastern entrance of the Fort.—Under
the same name, the place is also mentioned, in connection with Avanti (Ujjain), in the Bṛihat-
Saṁhitâ, xiv. vv. 11-16 (Kern's Translation, Jour. R. As. Soc. N. S. Vol. V. p. 83).