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

260 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
is more widely renowned on the earth (as being) the son, (begotten) on Padmâvatî,¹ of
the Aśvapati,² the soldier Saṁghila, who, unconquerable by (his) enemies, took himself
to be a very Ripughna;³—by his own appellation, he is spoken of under the name of
Śaṁkara;—(and) he has adhered to the path of ascetics, conformable to the sacred
precepts.
(L. 7.)—Born in the region of the north, the best of countries, which resembles (in
beatitude) the land of the Northern Kurus,⁴—he, the wise one, has set aside whatever
religious merit (there is) in this (act), for the purpose of destroying the band of the
enemies⁵ of religious actions.
No. 62; PLATE XXXVIII B.
SANCHI STONE INSCRIPTION.
THE YEAR 131.
THIS inscription was first brought to notice in 1837, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. VI.
p. 451 ff., where Mr. James Prinsep published a very fair lithograph of it (id. Plate xxvi.),
reduced from copies on cloth and paper made by Captain Edward Smith, of the Engi-
neers, and, with it, his own reading of the text, and a translation of it.
This is another inscription from Sâñchî,⁶ in the Dîwângañj Sub-Division of the
Bhôpâl State in Central India. It is on the outer side of the centre rail in the fourth row
outside and on the south side of the eastern gateway, and in a re-entering angle of the rail-
ing, of the Great Stûpa.
The writing, which covers a space of about 2′ 5″ broad by 2′ 0″ high, is in a very
fair state of preservation, every letter being, with care, legible from beginning to end;
but, owing to the discolouration of the stone from lapse of time, it is much easier to read
in the ink-impression and lithograph, than on the original stone.—The size of the letters
varies from ⅜″ to 1″. As in the case of the Sâñchî inscription of Chandragupta II. of the
year 93, No. 5 above, page 29, Plate iii B., the characters belong to the southern class
of alphabets; they are not so carefully formed as the characters of that inscription: but,
¹ See page 259 above, note 3.
² Aśvapati, lit. ‘lord of horses,’ appears to be a technical official title.—See Prof. F. Kielhorn’s
note on the analogous term Gajapati, in the Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 9, note 52.
³ Or we may translate “took himself to be the slayer of (all his) foes.”—But Ripughna seems
to be intended as a proper name, and as a synonym for Ripuṁjaya, which was the name of three or
four Purâṇic kings and heroes; or for Śatrughna, which was the name of one of the brothers of Râma.
We may also compare the name of Śatrughnarâja, in No. 55 above, lin 19 page 237.
⁴ The Kurus, one of the tribes of India, were divided into two branches, the northern and the
southern. Uttarakuru, or the country of the Northern Kurus, is supposed to be a region beyond the
most northern range of the Himâlaya mountains, and is described as a country of everlasting happi-
ness.
⁵ Here, again, the allusion is to the ari-shaḍ-varga; see page 156 above, note 5.
⁶ See page 29 above, and note 2.—In connection with what I have said there, regarding the
origin of the name of Sâñchî, I would add that we should compare, with Sâñchî or Sâchî and Kâchî,
such instances as Tôṇḍal and Bôṇḍal, two villages next to each other, separated only by a stream,
in the Mâḷsiras Tâlukâ or Sub-Division of the Shôlâpur District; and Hisrê and Phisrê, two con-
tiguous villages in the Karmâḷeṁ Tâlukâ of the same District. Similar rhyming names may be found
all over the country.