Epigraphia Indica Vol 23

SR No.: 032577
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1935
Total Pages: 436
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 64

No. 7.]
THREE MAUKHARI INSCRIPTIONS ON YUPAS: KRITA YEAR 295.
43
portion of it was discovered converted into & sati stone. On one side of this stone are still to be seen the letters yajño of the original inscription of the 3rd century A. D. It is therefore clear that this fourth pillar also bore an inscription, similar to, but not identical in its contents with those on the other three.
The two pillars of the front row were separated from each other by a distance of about 25 feet. The rear row, of which only one pillar was in situ, stood behind the first at a distance of about 25 yards. The ends of the yüpas turn inwards to their proper right, as will be seen from the accompanying photograph; two yūpas, standing at a distance of about 25 feet with their inclined portions facing each other, must have appeared like the lower portions of a törana. This may have been the reason, as I have already suggested, for the name Stambha-Torana being given to the locality, probably ever since the time of the erection of the pillars.
Each of the three pillars is described as a yüpa in the inscription engraved upon it. Sacred texts declare that yūpas should be made of wood. The Kätyāyana-Srautasútra vividly describes the expedition for securing a suitable stump for this purpose how the tree is to be felled, how its superfluous branches are to be chopped, etc. Different results are promised to the sacrificer according to the tree that may be selected for making the yūpa. The Aitarēya-Brahmana lays down that the yüpa itself was to be offered as an oblation at the end of the sacrifice. No wooden yūpas have, however, been so far discovered. The stone ones, that we have come across so far, begin from the 2nd century A. D., and seem to be an innovation introduced for commemorative purposes by the advocates of the Vedic revival, probably with a view to emulate Buddhist pillars like those of Asoka. We have so far discovered only four complete stone yūpas, besides the present three. In the early centuries of the Christian era the stone yūpas, commemorating different sacrificers, must have been fairly common; otherwise the word yüpa would not have acquired the sense of a jaya-stambha."
It is interesting to note that the practice of erecting commemorative yūpas runs counter to the sentiments expressed in this connection by the authors of the Grihyasūtra and Dharmasūtra literature. Their writers probably flourished just after the time of the Upanishadic and Buddhist revolt against the practice of slaughter of animals in sacrifices. Many of them like Väsishtha, Baudhiyana, Vishnu and Asvalāyana declare that the touch of a yüpa is as polluting as that of a funeral pyre or a woman in her courses; the Hiranyakëti-Grihyasūtra says that by touching & yüpa one brings upon oneself the guilt of whatever faults may have been committed in the sacrifice.16 It would appear that with the revival of Vedic sacrifices, the leaders of society and of the new movement ceased to subscribe to the above views of the Dharmaśāstra writers
1 In the inscriptons on the pillars completely preserved the word yaj o does not ooour. *VI, 3. * II, 1.
The wooden post, bearing a fragmentary inscription, discovered at Kirari (ante, Vol. XVIII, p. 152), does not look like a yüpa. It has a kalaba at the top, which no sacred text recommends in the case of yūpa. Its inscription is too fragmentary to determine whether it was a yüpa. . Cf. er fufe e tcurtfararaza: WENT
format : Raghuvanda, VI, 38.
.Of. affermato carerrafelgueye efect vog turu afar IV, 31. 'I, 5, 9, 5. .22, 69.
III, 6, 8. 10 of. Tugaveta i sfee ure ufarejafer T 1642 TL 1,5, 16, 18, Tho commentator HTET adda-fefafa yafacetE unit afatet WEAT-11