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

226 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
which they regard him),—(lives only) for (the purpose of dealing out) death. The far-
reaching (and) powerful arrow, scattering the elephants and driving horses wild with
fear, of him who has the name of Ananta,¹—impelled with speed (and) skilfully discharged
from the machine of (his) bow, fitted with a well-stretched string, that is drawn very
tight (and) rivals the screams of an osprey (with the noise of its twanging),—teaches
to the wives of (his) enemies the condition of the sorrows (of widowhood).

No. 50; PLATE XXXIB.

NAGARJUNI HILL CAVE INSCRIPTION OF ANANTAVARMAN.
THIS inscription, again, appears to have been discovered, about 1785, by Mr. J. H.
Harington, and was first brought to notice in 1788, in the Asiatic Researches Vol. I.
p. 276 ff., where Sir Charles Wilkins published his translation of it, from a copy made un-
der the direction of Mr. Harington, and, with it, a lithograph from the same materials.²
—And in 1837, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. VI. p. 672 ff., Mr. James Prinsep published
another reading of the text, and a translation of it, accompanied by a lithograph (id. Plate
xxxiv.), reduced from an ink-impression taken under the direction of Mr. Hathorne.
This is another inscription from the Nâgârjunî Hill³ in the lands of Jâphra, in the
Gayâ District of the Bengal Presidency. On the south side of the hill, there is another
cave-temple, which also is shewn to belong to the Aśôka period by another inscription, in
four lines, of Dasalatha-Dêvânaṁpiya on the rock over the entrance, and which, from the
first two words of that inscription, has come to be called the “Gôpî Cave.”⁴ The inscrip-
tion now published is on the smooth and polished surface of the granite rock, on the left
hand in the entrance to the cave.
The writing, which covers a space of about 4′ 11″ broad by 1 11½″ high, is in a state
of excellent preservation throughout ; except that, in the last line, the name of the village that
was granted has been intentionally obliterated.—The average size of the letters is about
1″. The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets, and are of precisely the
same type as those of the preceding two inscriptions of the same chieftain, Nos. 48 and
49 above, Plates xxxB. and xxxiA., exhibiting, in the same way, the fully developed mâtrâs.
—The language is Sanskrit ; and, except for the opening symbol representing the word
ôm, the inscription is in verse throughout.—In respect of orthography, we have to
notice (1) the use of the guttural nasal, instead of the anusvâra, before ś, in anśu, line 2, and
before h, in anhas, line 9; (2) the customary doubling of k and t, in conjunction with a
following r, e.g. in vikkrama, line 4, and puttrêna, line 7; and (3) the use throughout of
v for b, in lavdhaṁ, line 5; vandhu, line 6; and amvubhiḥ, line 9.
The inscription is another record of the Maukhari chieftain Anantavarman.
It is not dated. It is either a Śaiva, or a Śâkta, inscription ; the object of it being to
record the installation in the cave, by Anantavarman, of an image of the goddess Pârvatî,
the wife of Śiva, under the name of Kâtyâyanî, and also the grant to the same goddess,
under the name of Bhavânî, of a village, the name of which has been destroyed.
¹ As regards this abbreviated form of his name, see page 8 above, note
² See also the Calcutta reprint of the Asiatic Researches, Vol. I. p. 236 ff.
³ See page 224 above, and note 1.
⁴ Marked E. in Gen. Cunningham’s sketch in the Archaeol. Surv. Ind. Vol. I. p. 40, Pl xviii.