1853.] Note on an ancient Inscription from Thdneswar. 673 



Note on an ancient Inscription from Thdneswar. By Babtj Rajen- 

 dralal Mittra, Librarian, Asiatic Society. 



Subjoined is the legend of a Sanscrita inscription lately found in the 

 Thdneswar district. Mr. Bowring, to whom the Society is indebted 

 for facsimiles of this interesting record, states " that it is engraved 

 on a tablet of red sandstone in the temple of a follower of the Go- 

 raknath persuasion, in the town of Pehewa, which is about fifteen 

 miles west of Thaneswar." Regarding the circumstance under 

 which it was discovered, Mr. B. adds, " I was marching from Pati- 

 ala towards Thaneswar, and halted at Pehewa which is on the banks 

 of the Saraswati river, and is a place of pilgrimage of some note, 

 having been formerly known under the name of Prithudak. It is 

 included in the limit of the sacred territory, known as the forty coss, 

 that is, the distance between certain places, or the four points of the 

 compass, within which the skirmishes of the Pandavas were carried 

 on. The inscription was copied after my departure by the Thanadar 

 of Pehewa, and is, as you will observe, reversed. I am not sure 

 whether it will prove to be legible, as a part of the inscription is 

 effaced. It is possible, however, that there may be interesting 

 matter in it." 



The document is divided into two portions, the first of which is in 

 verse and comprises twenty-one lines, and the second is in prose and 

 includes eight lines. They are both very imperfect, being full of 

 lacunae, and several letters from the beginning and end of every line 

 effaced ; the inscription, however, is of importance as throwing some 

 light on an interesting but little known period of Indian history. 



The researches of Wilford, Colebrooke and Tod have proved 

 that three different sovereigns of central India have assumed the 

 title of Bhoja Raja. The first of these, according to Tod apud Prin- 

 sep, flourished about the end of the 5th century (483 A. C.) the 

 other two in the middle of the 7th and the 10th centuries (665 and 

 1035 A. C.) respectively. These dates however, excepting the last, 

 have not been proved by any authentic testimony, and the history of 

 the three princes has been very much confounded by Orientalists. 

 Prinsep makes the first Bhoja the nephew of Munja, while the as- 

 tronomical and astrological works quoted by Colebrooke concur in 



