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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS ; No. 42, PLATE XXVIII. 205
27 [ ⏑ – – – – – – – ⏑ ] | [bhôgê] bhûr=bhujag-âdhipasya cha taḍid=
yâvad=ghanasy=ôdarê tâvat=kîrttim=ih=âtanôti dhavalâm=Âdityasênô
nṛipaḥ || Sûkshmaśivêna¹ Gauḍêna praśastir=vvikaṭ-âksharâ ||(।)
28 [– – –]mâ(?)mitâ samyag-dhârmmikêna sudhîmatâ |'
TRANSLATION.
Ôm ! There was a king, the illustrious Krishṇagupta, who was like a mountain, in
that (his) cities, like the slopes of a mountain, were crowded with thousands of elephants ;
in that he was attended by men of learning, as a mountain is inhabited by Vidyâdharas ; in
that he was of good descent, as a mountain is possessed of excellent bamboos ; (and) in
that he was firm (and) lofty ; (and) whose arm played the part of a lion, in bruising the
foreheads of the array of the rutting elephants of (his) haughty enemies, (and) in being
victorious by (its) prowess over countless foes.
(Line 1.)—Just as the full-moon, destitute of spots, the destroyer of the darkness, was
produced from the ocean, so from him there was born a son, the majestic one, named the
illustrious Harshagupta, who,—raining down a terrible flight of arrows from (his) firm
bow that was bent with ease at the befitting proper time, (and) being gazed upon with
copious tears by (his enemies) who, averse to the abode of the goddess of fortune being
with (him, her) own lord, were stupified (at being unable to prevent it),—was (always) dis-
playing a glorious triumph, the written record as it were of terrible contests, in the guise
of the rows of the knots of hard callous places, caused by wounds from many weapons, on
(his) chest.
(L. 3.)—His son was the illustrious Jîvitagupta (I.), the best among kings, who
was a very cold-rayed (moon) to (wither) the waterlilies that were the countenances of the
women of (his) proud enemies. The very terrible scorching fever (of fear) left not (his)
haughty foes, even though they stood on seaside shores that were cool with the
flowing and ebbing currents of water, (and) were covered with the branches of plantain-
trees severed by the trunks of elephants roaming through the lofty groves of palmyra-
palms ; (or) even though they stood on (that) mountain (Himâlaya) which is cold with
the water of the rushing and waving torrents full of snow. Even still his superhuman
deeds are regarded with astonishment by all mankind, like the leap of (the monkey
Hanumat) the son of the Wind² from the side of (the mountain) Kôśavardhana.³
¹ Metre, Ślôka (Anushṭubh).
² Hanumat was one of the most celebrated of a host of semi-divine apes, who were created to
become the allies of Râmachandra in his war with Râvaṇa. The leaders of this army of monkeys
were supposed to be the offspring of various gods ; and Hanumat was the son of Pavana or Mâruta,
the Wind. One famous leap taken by Hanumat was from the mainland, over the sea, onto
Ceylon, in order to discover the whereabouts of Sîtâ. Another was his leap back from Ceylon to
the mainland, after setting Râvaṇa's city on fire, on which occasion he sprang from a mountain
which sank into the ground under the shock. A third leap, or flight through the air, was when he
went to the mountain Gandhamâdana, to procure a medicinal herb to cure the wounded Lakshmaṇa.
Which of these leaps is alluded to here, is difficult to say, as Kôśavardhana does not seem to be given
in the epic as the name of a mountain at all; and I cannot find the names of the mountains from
which his leaps were taken.
³ The only other mention that we have of a mountain Kôśavardhana, is in line 17 of the Shêr-
gaḍh (Kôṭâ) Buddhist inscription (Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 46), where it seems to denote the hill on
which the Fort of Shêrgaḍh now stands. This may, or may not, be one of the mountains from which
Hanumat took one of his flights through the air.