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

140 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
nine miles almost due south of Dehli, the chief town of the Dehli District in the
Pañjâb. The inscription is on the west side of a tapering iron column, sixteen inches
in diameter at the base and twelve at the top, and twenty-three feet eight inches high,
standing near the well-known Kutb Minâr in the ancient fort of Rây Pithôrâ within
the limits of this village.
The writing, which covers a space of about 2' 9½" broad by 10½" high, is in a state
of excellent preservation throughout, owing, of course, to the nature of the substance on
which it is engraved. The bottom line of the inscription is about 7' 2" above the stone
platform round the lower part of the column. The engraving is good; but, in the process
of it, the metal closed up over some of the strokes, which gives a few of the letters a
rather imperfect appearance in the lithograph; this is especially noticeable in the sy of the
opening word yasyô, and in the r of urasâ in the same line.—The size of the letters varies
from ⁵/₁₆" to ½". The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets; and, allowing
for the stiffness resulting from engraving in so hard a substance as the iron of this column,
they approximate in many respects very closely to those of the Allahâbâd posthumous
pillar inscription of Samudragupta, No. 1 above, Plate i. But, as a distinguishing feature,
we have to notice the very marked mâtrâs, or horizontal top-strokes of the letters, which
we have already observed in the Bilsaḍ pillar inscription of Kumâragupta, No. 10 above,
page 43, and Plate v. — The language is Saṁskṛit; and the inscription is in verse
throughout.—In respect of orthography, we have to notice (1) the use of the dental
nasal, instead of the anusvâra, before ś, in prânśu, line 6; (2) the doubling of t, in
conjunction with a following r, in śattru, line 1; and (3) the very unusual omission of the
second t, which is formative and not due to the preceding r, in mûrtyâ for mûrttyâ, and
kîrtyâ for kîrttyâ, line 3.
The inscription is a posthumous eulogy of the conquests of a powerful king named
Chandra, as to whose lineage no information is given. It is not dated.¹ It is a
Vaishṇava inscription; and the object of it is to record the erection of the pillar, which is
called a dhvaja, or ‘standard,’² of the god Vishṇu, on a hill called Vishṇupada, i.e.
“(the hill that is marked with) footprints of Vishṇu.”
As regards this hill named Vishṇupada, and the question whether it should be
identified with that part of the Dehli Ridge on which the column stands,—the actual
position of the column is in a slight depression, with rising ground on both sides; a position
¹ Mr. Prinsep allotted this inscription to the third or fourth century A.D.; and Dr. Bhau Daji, to a
period later than the time of the Guptas. Mr. Fergusson (Indian Architecture, p. 508), drawing special
attention to the Persian form of the capital, expressed a conviction that the inscription is of one
of the Chandraguptas of the Early Gupta dynasty, and consequently belongs to A.D. 363 or 400.—
My own impression at first, on independent grounds, was to allot it to Chandragupta I., the first
Mahârâjâdhirâja of the family, of whose time we have as yet no inscriptions; and I should not be
surprised to find at any time that it is proved to belong to him. The only objection that I can see, is
that it contains no reference to the Indo-Scythians, by overthrowing whom the Early Guptas must have
established themselves. But, having regard to the name of the village at which the pillar is, it is also
possible that the inscription is one of the younger brother of Mihirakula, whose name is not men-
tioned by Hiuen Tsiang.
² Compare dhvaja-stambha, ‘flag-staff,’ as applied to the Êraṇ column in line 9 of No. 19
above. There is another iron column, at Dhâr, the ancient Dhârâ, now the chief town of the Dhâr
State in Central India. But there is no ancient inscription on it; unless it is completely hidden
under, and destroyed by, a Persian inscription that was engraved on it when the Musalmâns conquered
that part of the country.