24 Text and Translation of Balandshahar Inscription. [No. 1 



of the tenth century. The date assigned to the inscription is conjec- 

 tural, as the plate at that part is defaced by rust. The words clearly 



recognizable are ^sjferj^fV^ ^cTT^r, the space intervening is just 



sufficient for three letters. 



The faint impression of the first is something like "^T, but the last 

 traceable is a ^. The intermediate has evidently a repha on it. The 

 combination would evidently be ^T^iT, which may be interpreted as 

 a misspelling of "^T^?T. The interchange of 7C and ^ is not un- 

 precedented with the scribes and engravers of this plate. The very 

 first couplet of the inscription has a similar error, ^"JCTO is spelt 

 with a dental s ^ at the end. There are many such errors ; in some 

 passages the final d has taken the place of a visarga, the two dots 

 of which when joined, resemble the a T. The inscription uses three 

 different forms of the palatal s, and the distinction of the dental 

 n «r and dental t ?r is not at all preserved. The Kutila forms 

 of bha, ha, dha, ga, and cerebral na, are perfectly preserved in the 

 characters of the inscription, though the compound of the cerebral 

 n "^ with y ^ is like that of the modern Nagri W- The form ^J, 

 however, appears once for nya. At some places, the dental s ^r is 

 of the modern form, and at others as old as that of the Vallabhi 

 plate of Gujrat. Bha is of the Allahabad Gupta form. The initial 

 i and e are of a very old type, and it is curious to observe how 

 characters of very different antiquity are promiscuously used. 



The language of the inscription is not at all pure and chaste. 

 Grammatical errors, especially misapplications of case-terminations, are 

 common. It is interesting to note that the inscription begins with a 

 descriptive character, the personages are described in the third person ; 

 but as it comes to the close, the method of reported speech is dis- 

 continued. The writer confounds the sayings of the kings with 

 his own, and it is very difficult to render the passages. This is 

 mainly due to the want of the signs of quotation in Sanscrit 

 Grammar. The language is very like that of many other grants by 

 similar petty chiefs. The last five lines are identical with those of 

 Valavarma Deva, Virasningha Deva and Pratapadhavata Deva. 

 (Compare A. R. vol. IX. p. 402, J. Am. 0. Soc, vol. VI. pp. 

 538-548.) 



