1838.] Translation of Inscription in the Society s museum, 557 



IV. — Translation of Inscription in the Society's museum. Continued 



from vol. VI.p.8&7. 



Brahmeswara Inscription, from Cuttack. 



Besides the two slabs of stone identified last year as belonging to the 

 Bhuvanesivara temples, in Cuttack, and consequently returned to the 

 brahmans after perusal, there was a third broken into two pieces, which 

 Mr. Kittoe pointed outas being in the same character and from the 

 same locality. Before returning this he kindly took for me a very ex- 

 act impression, whence I have copied the reduced facsimile in Plate 

 XXIV. 



Although, as will be seen,the slab was in a state of considerable muti- 

 lation, yet from the inscription being in verse, my pandit, Kamalakan- 

 ta Vidyal Ankara, has been able by study of the context to fill up all 

 the gaps, with, as he says, hardly a possibility of error, and indeed where 

 the outline of the letters is preserved I have found his restoration quite 

 conformable. The translation has been effected by Sarodaprasad 

 under his explanation, but I have not leisure to read it over with Ka- 



MALAKANTA. 



Mr. Stirling says* that " no information whatever is afforded by 

 the Orissa chronicles of the origin of the princes called the Kesari 

 vamsa; the founder of the new dynasty in A. D. 473 was Jajati 

 (Yayati) Kesari, a warlike and energetic prince, but who he was or 

 whence he came we are not apprized. He soon cleared his dominions 

 of the Yavanast who then retired to their own country." 



Perhaps the present inscription may in some measure remove this 

 obscurity. It commences with the conquest of Udhra or Orissa by 

 Janamajeya the king oiTelinga. It is possible thalfthis alludes to the 

 prince of that name in the Pauranic lists, but the locality of his domini- 

 on, and the names of his immediate successors are wholly different from 

 those of the Magadha line, and their history is circumstantially told as 

 of events transpired not long antecedent to the Kesari dynasty of Oris- 

 sa. His son was Dirgharava, and from the latter was born Apavara, 

 who died without issue. The kingdom was then overrun by invaders 

 from foreign countries, — (perhaps the same designated as Yavanas in 

 Stirling's Chronicles),— when Vichittravib a another descendant of 

 Janamejaya reigning in a neighbouring kingdom, possessed himself 

 of Orissa. His son was named Abhimanyu' ; his again Chandihara ; 

 and from the latter descended Udyotaka Kesari, whose mother Kola- 

 vati erected the temple to Siva as Brahmeswara. The date of the 



* As. Res. XV. 265. 

 4 A 



