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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 47, PLATE XXX A. 219
No. 47; PLATE XXX A.
ASIRGADH COPPER SEAL INSCRIPTION OF SARVAVARMAN.
THIS inscription was first brought to notice, through two independent channels, in
1836. In the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. V. p. 482 ff., Mr. James Prinsep published the
Rev. W. H. Mill's reading of the text, and translation of it, accompanied by a lithograph
(id. Plate xxvi.) reduced from a drawing, forwarded to him by Dr. J. Swiney, which had
been made in 1805 from a wax-impression of the original seal, and had been in the possession
of Dr. Mellish from then; the lithograph is a fairly good one; but the rendering of the in-
scription was erroneous almost throughout. And in the Jour. R. As. Soc. F. S. Vol. III.
p. 377 ff., Professor H. H Wilson published Sir Charles Wilkins' reading of the text and
translation of it, accompanied by a lithograph, apparently full-size, prepared from an im-
pression which was found in 1805 or 1806 by Captain Colebrooke at Asîrgaḍh, in a box
containing property of the Mahârâjâ Scindia, and was forwarded by him to Sir Charles
Wilkins.
Asîrgaḍh¹ is a hill-fort, which formerly belonged to Scindia, about 'eleven miles to
the north-east of Burhânpur,² the chief town of the Burhânpur Tahsîl or Sub-Division of the
Nimâḍ³ District in the Central Provinces. As is shewn by the Sônpat seal of Harshavardhana,
No. 52 below, Plate xxxiiB., and the seal attached to the spurious Gayâ plate of Samudra-
gupta, No. 60 below, Plate xxxvii., the original of the inscription is evidently the seal,
presumably of copper, of a copper-plate grant. The grant itself appears never to have
been found. As regards the seal, it is not quite clear from the published accounts whether
the original was ever found, or only impressions of it. But, at any rate, I have not been
able to find out what became either of the seal, or of the impressions of it. My litho-
graph is a full-size reproduction of the lithograph published with Professor H. H. Wilson's
paper.
In the absence of the original seal and impressions, I am unable to give any details
as to its measurements, weight, state of preservation, &c. But, if the original lithograph
is full-size, it represents a seal, roughly oval in shape, measuring about 4⅞" by 5⅛". The
upper part is occupied by emblems, which are—in the centre, a bull, walking to the proper
right, decorated with a garland; beyond it, or perhaps attached to its off-side, there is
an umbrella, the staff of which is decorated with two streamers; on the proper right side,
in front of the bull, there is a man, walking, who carries in his right hand a curved double
axe on a short transverse handle, and in his left hand, either a standard, with a wheel or
sun-emblem on the top of it, or perhaps an abdâgîr or 'sunshade;' and on the proper left,
behind the bull, there follows another man, who carries in his left hand an ordinary long-
handled double axe, and in his right either a chauri-brush or a stick, with which he is
driving the bullock.—The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets; and,
though rather florid, especially in respect of the representation of the superscript vowels,
they are of a perceptibly older type than those of the inscriptions of the Guptas of
¹ The 'Asirgarh and Asseer Gurh' of maps, &c. Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 54. Lat. 21° 28' N.;
Long. 76° 20' E.
² The 'Burhanpur and Boorhanpoor' of maps, &c.
³ The 'Nimár' of maps, &c.
2 E 2