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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 25, PLATE XV B. 113
—The language is Sanskrit; and, except for the benedictive and imprecatory verses
in lines 18 to 23, the inscription is in prose throughout. From a linguistic point of
view, we have to notice in kâritaka, line 13, the affix ka, on which I have commented at
page 69 above. — In respect of orthography, we have to notice (1) the use of b for v,
in sambatsara, line 3; and (2) the occasional use of v for b, in avda, line 1; vrâhmaṇa,
line 7; and vahubhiḥ, line 19.
The inscription is one of the Parivrâjaka Mahârâja Saṁkshôbha. It is dated,
in words, “in the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta kings,” in the year two hundred
and nine (A.D. 528-29), in the Mahâ-Aśvayuja saṁvatsara, on the thirteenth lunar day
of the bright fortnight of the month Chaitra (March-April); and at the end, in numerical
symbols, the date is given again as the twenty-ninth solar day, without any specification
of the fortnight, of the same month Chaitra.¹ Judging by the opening invocation of the
god Vishṇu, under the name of Vâsudêva, it is a Vaishṇava inscription. And the object
of it is to record the grant, by the Mahârâja Saṁkshôbha, at the request of a certain
person named Chhôḍugômin, of the village of Ôpâṇi to a temple of the goddess
Pishṭapurî,²—apparently some local form of Lakshmî, the wife of Vishṇu.³
One point of importance in this inscription is, that it mentions the Mahârâja Hastin
as governing the kingdom of Ḍabhâlâ, or possibly Ḍahâlâ, that had come to him by
inheritance, together with all the country included in the eighteen forest kingdoms. I
cannot identify these eighteen forest kingdoms.⁴ But, in Ḍabhâlâ or Ḍahâlâ, we have

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¹ On the extreme importance of this double record, see page 107 above, note 1.
² Through his identification of Pishṭapura with the place that he writes ‘Pithaora,’ and which is
entered in maps as ‘Pataora’ and ‘Puttoura,’ nine miles north of Uchchaharâ, Gen. Cunningham (Ar-
chæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. IX. p. 10) identified this goddess Pishṭapurî with the local goddess Paṭainîdêvî
of this ‘Pithaora.’ But this identification will not hold good; if only for the reason that ‘Pithaora’
is in reality Pataurâ, probably from pitṛi-pura, ‘the town of deceased ancestors.’—Pataurâ and
Pitaurâ, in passing, are evidently common names in that part of the country; as the maps shew
‘Patoura,’ ‘Pitoura,’ ‘Patora,’ and ‘Pithoura,’ respectively 29 miles west by a little north, 18 miles
west, 13 miles north-west, and 24 miles north-west, of Uchchaharâ.—Of Pishṭapura we have already
had an earlier mention in line 19 of the Allâhâbâd pillar inscription, No. 1, page 7 above, as the
capital of a king named Mahêndra, who was conquered by Samudragupta, in the dakshiṇâpatha or
‘region of the south.’ And we have another later mention of it, as being conquered by the Western
Chalukya king Pulikêśin II., in line 13 of the Aihoḷe Mêguṭi inscription of Śaka-Saṁvat 556 or A.D.
634-35 (Ind. Ant. Vol. VIII. pp. 242, 245). It is the modern Piṭṭâpuram, the ‘Pithâpur and Pittapooram’
of maps, &c. (Indian Atlas Sheet No. 94; Lat. 17° 6' N., Long. 82° 18' E.), twelve miles north by east
of ‘Coconada’ in the Gôdâvarî District in the Madras Presidency. It is the chief town of a Zamîndârî,
or Estate of the same name; and the remains at it shew that it is a place of considerable antiquity (see
Sewell in Lists of Antiquities, Madras, Vol. I. p. 23 f.)—The Pishṭapurî of this inscription must be
a local form of some more famous and original goddess at Pishṭapura itself. She is mentioned again,
under the slightly different name of Pishṭapurikâdêvî, in line 12 of No. 29 below, Plate xixA., and in
line 11 of No. 31 below, Plate xx.; and the latter passage shews that her local shrine was at a place
named Mânapura, which may perhaps be the modern ‘Manpoor, Manpora, and Mánpur,’ of maps
about forty-seven miles towards the south-east from Uchaharâ.
³ This seems to be shewn (1) by the general Vaishṇava tendency of the present inscription;
and (2) by the fact that,—whereas in the year 177 the village of Dhavashaṇḍikâ was allotted by the
Mahârâja Jayanâtha for the purposes of a temple of the god Vishṇu, under the name of Bhagavat
or the Divine One (No. 27 below, Plate xvii.),—subsequently half of this same village was set
apart, by a grant of the Mahârâja Śarvanâtha, for the purposes of a temple of the goddess Pishṭa-
purikâdêvî (No. 29 below, Plate xixA.)
⁴ See page 13 above, note 7.