Epigraphia Indica Vol 22

SR No.: 032576
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1933
Total Pages: 408
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 21 MB

Page 128

No. 16.)
A SARADA INSCRIPTION FROM HUND.
97
No. 16.-A SARADA INSCRIPTION FROM HUND.
BY RAI BAHADUR DAYA RAM SAHNI, M.A., C.I.E. In April last Captain E. H. Cobb, I.A., Assistant Commissioner, Mardan, North-West Frontier Province, sent me an eye-copy of an inscription, engraved on a rectangular slab of white stone, which he had discovered in the foundations of an old wall at Hund on the bank of the River Indus on the occasion of his visit to that place in company with Mr. O. K. Caroe, C.I.E., Chief Secretary to the Government of the North-West Frontier Province, now Deputy Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Department. I have deciphered the in. scription from inked estampages secured through the good offices of the discoverer.
Hund is the modern name of Udabhāņda, the ancient capital of the Shāhi kings of Kabul from the 9th century A.D. till 1021 A.D. when this dynasty was extirpated by Mahmud of Ghazni. It was at Hund that Alexander the Great crossed the River Indus before he proceeded on his conquest of India and through which later invaders passed. The Chinese pilgrim Yuan Chwang visited this city in the 7th century A.D. and describes it as about 20 li, or just over three miles, in circuit and inhabited by rich and prosperous merchants. The site is now occupied by a small village surrounded by fortified walls of Muhammadan date with a perimeter of 1,400 yards. All round the village are extensive mounds marking the existence of important buildings of early date and coins of Indo-Greeks, Kushāns, Shāhi kings and the kings of Kashmir have been found here in large numbers. No excavations have been carried out among these remains, but when they are, they may be expected to yield valuable antiquities of all kinds.
So far only a few inscriptions in Särada characters have been noticed on this site. Two of these were found by Lt.-Col. Sir Alexander Burnes of the Hon'ble India Company's Service in the early forties of the last century and deciphered by Mr. James Prinsep. Another inscription in the same character was presented to my predecessor, Mr. H. Hargreaves, when he visited Hund in 1923-24. This inscription, according to Dr. Hirananda Sastri, dates from about the 10th century A.D. and records the construction of a Saiva temple. All the three inscriptions require proper treatment.
The stone slab on which the inscription discovered by Captain E. H. Cobb is engraved measures l' by 1' by 1'4' in thickness. The inscription consists of eight lines and is in a very good state of preservation. The characters are Sāradā of the 8th century A.D. and the language Sanskrit, which is not free from grammatical mistakes. The epigraph records the construction of a dévakula, i.e., 'statue shrine' or temple by a Mahārājri Sri-Kämēśvaridēvi and its consecration between Saturday, the 8th day of the dark fortnight of the month of Afvayuja in the year Samvat 168 and Thursday (?), the 12th day of the bright fortnight of the month of Ashādha in the year Samvat 169. The architect (navakarmapati) who supervised the construction, was Jayantarāja, son of Upendra. He was an Avantika or inhabitant of Avanti or Mālwā, and a Süryadvija. The panchakula was the Brāhmana, Sri-Pillaka, the son of Sri-Virāditya. The exact meaning of pańchakula is not known. In his article on the Siyadoni Stone Inscription, Professor Kielhorn defines this term as "an office apparently similar to the Marathi dy or de " or "an assembly of five " who manage affairs of a town. If this interpretation is correct, we should assume Pillaka of the inscription under discussion to have been the head or
1 J. A. 8. B., Vol. VI, 1837, pp. 876 seg. and Pl. XLVI. Abovo, Vol. I, pp. 166 and 170.