BHERA-GHAT INSCRIPTION OF ALHANADEVI. 7
Brahmans 48 ; and they with these already quench their thirst, and afterwards show their contempt even for the ocean. 47
(V. 21.) In weight (like the mountain) Meru, this ruler of the earth exceedingly gratifies suppliants by bestowing on them (gold) equal to his own weight and by other great gifts.
(22.) Bright like the tusks of the elephant of the king of heaven, pure like the shells of the ocean of milk, (and) lustrous like the snake's skin in which Vishnu is clad, his fame has become superabundant.
(23.) Extirpating with ease the ruler of Andhra (even though) the play of (that king's) arms disclosed no flaw, he reverenced the holy Bhimesvara 13 with many ornaments. The Godavari, with her waves, trees and creeping plants dancing, has sung his deeds of valour with the seven notes of her stream, sweet like the cries of the intoxicated flamingo.
(24.) Crushing the power of his enemies and making over the earth to the Brahmans, he engages in a course of rivalry with Paras urama.
And this . . . the Paramabhattdraha, Mahdrdjddhirdja, and Paramesvara, who [meditates on] the feet of the illustrious Vamadeva
II.—BHERA-GHAT STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE QUEEN ALHANADEVI.
The [Chedi] year 907.
By Professor F. Kielhorn, Ph.D., C.I.E., Gottingen.
The stone which bears this inscription was procured by Dr. E. E. Hall, in 1857, at Bhera-Ghat on the Narmada, in the Jabalpur district of the Central Provinces, and subsequently presented by him to the American Oriental Society in whose Cabinet, at New Haven, it is now deposited. It is a plain block of greenstone, of a soft texture and easily cut, 2' 9^" broad by 1' lOJ" high. 1 The inscription was first edited, with an English translation and notes, by Dr. Hall in the Journal Am. Or. Soc, vol. VI, pp. 499-532 ; and Dr. Hall's text was afterwards reprinted in Roman characters, with a photozincograph of the inscription, in Dr. Burgess' Memoranda, Archceol. Survey of Western India, No. 10, pp. 107-9 ; and his translation in Sir A. Cunningham's Archceol. Survey of India, vol. IX, pp. 91-91. I now re-edit the inscription from two excellent impressions and a rubbing kindly prepared for me, at Professor Lanman's request, by Mr. Herbert C. Tohwan, of Yale University, New Haven. 2
The inscription contains 29 lines of writing which cover a space of about 2' 7J" broad by 1' 9" high. With the exception of two aksharas each at the end of lines 11 and 12, which are almost entirely broken away, and about half a dozen other damaged aksharas,
46 viz., at the time when he is maldng donations to them.
47 The word translated by 'ocean' means originally 'a mine of precious stones.'
48 i.e., the god Siva. [I take this to refer to the BbimeSvara temple at Dr&ksh&r&ma in the Godavari district.— E. H.]
1 See the Journal Am. Or. Soc, vol. VI, pp. 499 and 584; and C. Giant's Gazetteer of the Central Provinces, 2nd ed., p. 73.
2 It is hardly necessary to say that Dr. Hall's text and translation were prepared with his usual care and scholarship. Nevertheless, a few slight errors of his were pointed out already by the Committee of Publication of the American Oriental Society while his paper was passing through the press ; and I have had occasion to differ still further from Dr. Hall, as regards both the text and the translation.
