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

266 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
No. 65; PLATE XXXIX C.
KOSAM STONE IMAGE INSCRIPTION OF THE
MAHARAJA BHIMAVARMAN.
THE YEAR 139.
THIS inscription was discovered in 1874-75 or 1876-77 by General Cunningham, and
was first brought to notice by him in 1880, in the Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. X. p. 3, where
he published his reading of the text, accompanied by a lithograph (id. Plate ii. No. 3).
Kôsam,¹ the ancient Kausâmbî, is a small village near the left bank of the Jamnâ,
about eight miles to the south of Karârî,² the chief town of the Karârî Parganâ in the
Manjhanpur or Mânjhandpur Tahsîl or Sub-Division of the Allahâbâd District in the
North-West Provinces. The inscription is on the broken base of a sculptured standing
group of Siva and Pârvatî that was found buried in a field near the large monolith pillar
inside the fort, which is described in the Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. I. p. 309 ff.
The writing, which covers the whole face of the stone, measuring about 10½″ broad
by 4″ high, is in a state of very fair preservation, as far as it goes. But it is only a frag-
ment, as at least one line is almost entirely destroyed below line 2; and it is also impos-
sible to say how much has been lost at each side of the stone.—The average size of the
letters is about ⅝″. The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets. They
include forms of the numerical symbols for 7, 9, 30, and 100, and perhaps³ for 2.—The
language is Sanskrit; and the extant portion of the inscription is all in prose.—The
orthography presents nothing calling for remark.
The inscription is one of a Mahârâja named Bhîmavarman, who, judging by the
date, must have been a feudatory of the Early Gupta king Skandagupta. Its date,
in numerical symbols, is the year one hundred and thirty-nine (A.D. 458-59), and the
seventh solar day, perhaps of the second fortnight of a month, or perhaps of the second month
of a season;⁴ but the details here are broken away and lost. It is evidently a Śaiva in-
scription; and the object of it must have been to record the gift or installation of the
sculpture on the base of which it is engraved.
¹ The ‘Kosam and Kosim Kheraj’ of maps, &c. Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 88. Lat. 25° 20′ N.,
Long. 81° 27′ E.—Kheraj is a mistake for khirâj; the village consisting of two parts, of which one is
inâm or ‘rent-free, and the other is khirâj or ‘rent-paying.’
² The ‘Kuraiee’ of maps
³ See note 4 below.
⁴ Before the word diva there are two marks which seem to be the numerical symbol 2; and
the passage might be completed either in accordance with the method of, for instance, the date of the
Nâsik inscription of Puḷumâyi, “in the year nineteen, 19; in the second fortnight, 2, of the hot
season; on the thirteenth day, 13” (Archæol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 108, No. 18); or the date
of the Mathurâ inscription of Vâsudêva, “in the 44 (? 74); in the first month of the rainy season; on
the thirtieth day, 30” (Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. III. p. 32, No. 8). But I know of no other instance
of these ancient methods being continued as late as the period of the present inscription; and this
makes it doubtful whether the signs in question really are the numerical symbol 2.