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

the Sakarî river, about nine miles to the south-east of Bihâr, the chief town of the Bihâr
Sub-Division of the Paṭna District in the Bengal Presidency. The inscription is on the
pedestal of a standing image of the sun,—represented as a man, 2′ 10″ high, holding a
waterlily in each hand; and with, on each side, a small standing figure, that on the right
being armed with a club,—which was found on a mound in the lands of this village.
When I sent my copyists to Shâhpur in 1884, they could not find the image, and could
obtain no information as to what had become of it; my lithograph, therefore, has been
prepared from Mr. Beglar's pencil-rubbing, which suffices for practical purposes, though
perhaps the date is not quite as clear as it might be.
The writing, which covers a space of about 1′ 4½″ broad by 4″ high, has suffered
a good deal of injury towards the proper right side of the stone; the rest, however, is very
well preserved.—The average size of the letters is about ½″. The characters belong
to the northern class of alphabets, and are of almost precisely the same Kuṭila type as
those of the preceding Aphsaḍ inscription of Âdityasêna, No. 42, Plate xxviii. They
include, in line 2, forms of the numerical symbols¹ for 6, 7 (?), and 60.—The language
is Saṁskṛit; and the inscription is in prose throughout.—In respect of orthography, the
only point that calls for notice is the use of v for b in valâdhikṛita, line 3.
The inscription refers itself to the time of Âdityasêna, of the family of the
Guptas of Magadha. Its date, in numerical symbols, is the year sixty-six, on the
¹ The symbol for the day is a little doubtful; but it seems to be 7.—Gen. Cunningham inter-
preted these symbols as decimal figures, and read the year as 55, and the day as 1. At the same time
he notified that Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji, interpreting them in the same way, read the year as 88. And
the date certainly has the appearance, in Gen. Cunningham's published lithograph, of either 55 or
88.—But this is too early a period for the occurrence of decimal figures; and, though the symbols
are rather damaged, I think quite enough of them remains to shew very clearly a 60, followed by a
6.—So far as definite dates are available, the system of numerical symbols was preserved in this part
of the country as late as Harsha-Saṁvat 188 (A.D. 794-95) as shewn by the Bengal Asiatic Society's
grant of the Mahârâja Vinâyakapâla (Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 138 ff.); and in the neighbouring coun-
try of Nêpâl, as late as Harsha-Saṁvat 153 (A.D. 659-60), as shewn by the inscription of Jayadêva
II. (Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 178 ff., and Vol. XIV. p. 345), and Gupta-Saṁvat 535 (A.D. 854-55), as
shewn by another Nêpâl inscription (id. Vol. IX. p. 168 ff., and Vol. XIV. p. 345). In the west of
India, it continued, in Gujarât, as late as Śaka-Saṁvat 679 (A.D. 757-58), as shewn by the Kârêlî
grant of Kakka of Gujarât (Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XVI. p. 105 ff). In Central India, as
late as Vikrama-Saṁvat 879 (A.D. 822-23), as shewn by the Shêrgaḍh (Kôṭâ) inscription of the
Sâmanta Dêvadatta (Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. pp. 45 ff., 351). And in the South, as late as about Śaka-
Saṁvat 549 (A.D. 627-28), as shewn by the Vizagapatam grant of the Eastern Chalukya Mahârâja
Vishṇuvardhana I. (Burnell's South-Indian Palæography, p. 137 f. and Pl. xxvii.; see also Ind. Ant.
Vol. VII. p. 186, where I gave the date as the sixteenth year, instead of the eighteenth, which it
really appears to be.)—As regards the introduction of decimal figures (setting aside the question
of the first invention of them, which was probably by the astronomers of Ujjain in the fifth or sixth
century A.D.), the earliest epigraphical instances of the use of them that I can quote, are, in the
north, the Gwâlior inscription of Bhôjadêva dated Vikrama-Saṁvat 933 or A.D. 876-77 (Jour Beng.
As. Soc. Vol. XXXI. p. 407 f.; see also Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 108, note 25); and the ‘Pêhewâ’ in-
scription of the same king, dated Harsha-Saṁvat 276 or A.D. 882-83 (Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol.
XXII. p. 673 ff., and Vol. XXXIII. p. 223 ff.; see also Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 109, note 27); in Central
India, the ‘Deogarh’ inscription of the same king, dated Vikrama-Saṁvat 919 and Śaka-Saṁvat
784 or A.D. 862-63 (Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. X. p. 100 ff.; see also Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 110, note
32); in Gujarât, the ‘Bagumra’ grant of the Râshṭrakûṭa chieftain Dhruva III., dated Śaka-Saṁvat
789 or A.D. 732-33 (Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 185); in Kâṭhiâwâḍ the Môrbî grant of Jâïnka, dated
(irrespective of the actual reading in line 17) Gupta-Saṁvat 585 (A.D. 804-5); and in the Dekkan,
the Sâmâṅgaḍ grant of Dantidurga, dated Śaka-Saṁvat 675 or A.D. 753-54 (Ind. Ant. Vol. X
p. 108 ff.).