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

152 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
eighty-nine had expired from the tribal constitution of the Mâlavas, and, therefore, when
the year five hundred and ninety (A.D. 533-34) was current; but no further details of the
date are given. The opening invocations are addressed to the god Śiva. But the record
itself is non-sectarian; the object of it being only to record the construction of a large well
by a person named Daksha, the younger brother of Dharmadôsha, who was a minister
of Vishṇuvardhana, in memory of their deceased uncle Abhayadatta, who had formerly
held the same office for the tract of country bounded by the Vindhyas and the Pâriyâtra
mountain, and the (Western) Ocean.
The genealogy of this family of ministers is given; and it includes a somewhat notice-
able name in that of Bhânuguptâ, the wife of Daksha's grandfather, Ravikîrtti. Her
date would be just about one generation before that of the king Bhânugupta, for whom
we have the date of Gupta-Saṁvat 191 (A.D. 510-11) from the Êraṇ posthumous pillar
inscription of Gôparâja, No. 20 above, page 91, and Plate xiiB.; and the coincidence of
name and time is such, that it is almost impossible not to imagine some family connection
between him and her. Bhânugupta, of course, must have been a Kshatriya; and Bhânu-
gupta's husband, Ravikîrtti, was evidently a Brâhmaṇ. But the ancient Hindu law
authorised the marrying of Kshatriya wives by Brâhmaṇs. And we have an epigraphi-
cal instance of this practice in the Ghaṭôtkacha cave inscription of Hastibhôja, a minister
of the Vâkâṭaka Mahârâja Dêvasêna; it tells us that Hastibhôja's ancestor, the Brâhmaṇ
Sôma, "in accordance with the precepts of revelation and of tradition" married a
Kshatriya wife, through whom Hastibhôja was descended, in addition to some other wives
of the Brâhmaṇ caste, whose sons, and their descendants, applied themselves to the
study of the Vêdas.¹
TEXT.²
1 Siddham [॥*] Sa³ jayati jagatâṁ patiḥ Pinâkî smita-rava-gîtishu
yasya danta-kântiḥ। dyutir=iva taḍitâṁ niśi sphurantî tirayati
cha sphuṭayaty=adaś=cha viśvam॥ Svayambhûr⁴=bhûtânâṁ sthiti-
laya-[samu]-
2 tpatti-vidhishu prayuktô yên=âjñâṁ vahati bhuvanânâṁ vidhṛitayê।
pitṛitvaṁ ch=ânîtô jagati garimâṇaṁ gamayatâ sa Śambhur=bhûyâṁsi
pratidiśatu bhadrâṇi bhava[tâṁ]॥ Phaṇa⁵-maṇi-guru-bhâr-[âkk]r[â]-
3 nti-dûr-âvanamraṁ sthagayati rucham=indôr=mmaṇḍalaṁ yasya mûrdhnâm [।*]
sa śirasi vinibadhnan=randhriṇîm=asthi-mâlâṁ sṛijatu bhava-sṛijô vaḥ
klêśa-bhaṅgaṁ bhujaṅgaḥ॥ Shashṭyâ⁶ sahasraiḥ Sagar-âtmajânâṁ
khâta[ḥ]
‘boar-crest,’ which appears on the seals of all their charters, and on their coins; and the special con-
nection of the lâñchhana with the śâsana or ‘charter,’ is shewn by a passage in lines 73 ff. of the
Korumelli grant of Râjarâja II., “on whose charter the mighty form, that of the first boar, of
(the god) Vishṇu, which lifted up the entire circle of the earth on the tip of (its right-hand) tusk, be-
came in a pleasing way the crest” (id. Vol. XIV. p. 85)
¹ Archæol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 140 and note.
² From the original stone.
³ Metre, Pushpitâgrâ.
⁴ Metre, Śikhariṇî.
⁵ Metre, Mâlinî.
⁶ Metre, Upajâti of Indravajrâ and Upêndravajrâ.