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

250 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
length of twenty-seven feet; with a rough base of nine feet; the total length being thirty-six
feet,—which was found lying here, more than half buried in the ground, and was after-
wards, in or about 1853, removed to Benares and set up in the grounds of the Sanskrit
College there, on the north side, where it still stands. At the village of ‘Lathiya,’ one and
a half miles east of Zamânîyâ, there stands another sandstone column, rather smaller
in its dimensions, which is supposed to be the sister-column of the Pahlâdpur pillar; but
it is not inscribed.
The writing, which covers a space of about 4' 11" broad by 4" high, is about ten feet
above the place where the column starts from its present pedestal; and, commencing on
the north-west, it runs a little more than half-way round the column. The greater part of
it is in a state of very good preservation; but a few letters in the third pâda of the
verse, containing the name of the king, if it was recorded, have unfortunately quite peeled
off, and are entirely illegible. There are several inscriptions in the so-called "shell-
characters" on this column; but, apparently, no sculptures connected with the inscription
now published.—The size of the letters varies from ½" to ¾". The characters belong
to the northern class of alphabets. They include the so-called Indo-Scythic form of m,
which disappeared in Northern India very soon after the commencement of the Early
Gupta period; and its appearance here is sufficient to stamp this record as being at
least as early as any other inscription in this volume.—The language is Sanskrit; and
the inscription consists only of one verse, preceded by the word iha, 'here.'—The
orthography presents nothing calling for remark.
The inscription is not dated, and is non-sectarian. It only commemorates the fame
of a king whose name, if it was recorded, is unfortunately peeled away and lost. Mr.
Prinsep suggested, from the comparison in the last pâda of the verse, that his name was
Lôkapâla. From the rhyming ends of the four pâdas, it seems that his name must have
ended in pâla. But, in the third pâda of the verse, we have certainly the well-known name
of Śiśupâla; and,—whether the name as it stands here is that of the king himself, or
is that of the Purâṇic king Śiśupâla of Chêdi, with whom he is compared,—the infer-
ence seems to be that the name of the king, whose inscription is on the pillar, was Śiśu-
pâla. The chief interest of the inscription, however, is in the early date of it, as shewn
by the characters; and in there being the possibility that it is a record of the Pallavas
in Northern India. The king is called pârthiv-ânîka-pâlaḥ. This might be rendered by
simply "the protector of the armies of kings." But pârthiva has so much the appearance
of standing as a proper name here,¹ that I think the correct translation is "the protector
of the army of the Pârthivas." And, if Dr. Oldhausen’s derivation of the name Pallava,
through the form Pahlava, from Parthava, i.e. Parthian,² can be upheld, there will be no
objection to considering that we have in this record a fuller and more completely Sanskrit-
ised form of the early name of this tribe.
TEXT.³
1 Iha [1*] Vipula⁴-vijaya-kîrt[t*]iḥ kshatra-saddharma-pâlaḥ satata-dda(da)yita-
p[â*]rtthaḥ P[â*]rthiv-ânî(nî)ka-pâlaḥ diśi-diś[i] Śiśupâla[—]timâ
[— ⏑]pau(?)laḥ vihita iva Vidhâtrâ pañchamô lô[kapâ]laḥ [||*]

¹ As a Hindu name, it denotes one of the families of the Kauśikas, descended through Viśvâmitra
from Kuśika who was brought up among the Pahlavas (see Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Vol. I. p. 351 ff.).
² See Weber's History of Indian Literature, p. 188, note 201.
³ From the original pillar.            ⁴ Metre, Mâlinî.