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

222 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
General Cunningham to the Aśôka period, though the entrance-porch was enlarged and
decorated with a sculptured façade at a later time, probably when the present inscrip-
tion was engraved. The inscription is on a smooth polished surface of the granite rock,
over the entrance to the cave.¹
The writing, which covers a space of about 3′ 9½″ broad by 1′ 3½″ high, is in a state
of excellent preservation throughout.—The size of the letters varies from ⅜″ to 1⅛″. The
characters belong to the northern class of alphabets, and exhibit very markedly the fully
developed mâtrâs, or horizontal top-strokes of the letters, that have already been noticed
at pages 43 and 140 above.—The language is Saṁskṛit; and, except for the opening
symbol representing the word ôm, the inscription is in verse throughout.—In respect of
orthography, the only points that call for notice are (1) the doubling throughout of t, in
conjunction with a following r; e.g. in puttra, line 1, and yattra, line 5; and (2) the use
of v for b, in vabhûva, line 4.
The inscription is one of a Maukharî chieftain named Anantavarman; but, from
the way in which his father Śârdûla or Śârdûlavarman is mentioned in line 5, it seems to
have been engraved while the latter was still alive. It is not dated. It is a Vaishṇava
inscription; the object of it being to record the installation in the cave, by Anantavarman,
of an image of the god Vishṇu, in his incarnation as Kṛishṇa.
The hill itself is mentioned in line 2, under the name of Pravaragiri. The word, of
course, is capable of being taken simply as an epithet, to be rendered by "(this) excellent
hill." But, on the analogy of the town of Pravarapura, which is mentioned in the first
line of the Chammak grant of the Mahârâja Pravarasêna II., No. 55 below, Plate xxxiv.,
it seems to me to be clearly intended as the actual name of the hill. And we have pos-
sibly a reminiscence of it in the modern name Barâbar, for which, at any rate, General
Cunningham's proposed etymology of baṛâ âvara, 'the great enclosure,"² does not suffice
to account.
TEXT.³
1 Ôm⁴ [||] Bhûpânâ[ṁ]⁵ Maukharîṇâṁ kulam=atanu-guṇô-laṁ-chakâr=âtma-
jâtyâ |⁶ śrî-Śârdûlasya yô=bhûj-jana-hṛidaya-harô-Nantavarmmâ
su-puttraḥ [|]
2 Kṛishṇasy=âkṛishṇa-kîrttiḥ Pravaragiri-guhâ-saṁśritaṁ viṁvam=êtat mûrtta⁷ṁ
lôkê yaśa[ḥ] svaṁ rachitam=iva mud=âchîkarat=kântimat=saḥ ||
¹ Gen. Cunningham (Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. I. p. 47) speaks of it as "two distinct inscriptions,
the upper one, of two lines, being somewhat later in date than the lower one, of four lines, in rather.
larger characters." But the six lines are all one and the same inscription; and the rather smaller size
of the letters in the first two lines is simply due to the lateral space available being less, in con-
sequence of the turning over of the upper part of the façade, within the limits of which the inscription
is engraved.
² id. p. 43. ³ From the original stone.
⁴ In the original, the symbol for this word, ôm, stands in the margin, opposite the commence-
ment of line 3.
⁵ Metre, Sragdharâ.
⁶ This mark of punctuation is unnecessary.
⁷ The engraver first formed rtti, and then partially cancelled the i.