1895]. Nagendranatna Vasu —Susunid Rock Inscription. 179 
The spot, where tlie inscription is situated, is on the nortli-eastern 
side of the hill nearly half way to the summit, above a perennial 
mountain-spring which among the people of the locality goes by the 
name of Yamadliara or Damdhara, in order to distinguish it from the more 
important spring D liar a to the south-west extremity, which has been 
already mentioned. The place commands the view of a tract of land 
towards the north as far as Ranlgahj, spotted with innumerable villages, 
jDonds, gardens, cornfields, jungles, &c. Tradition runs, that this 
place was the grotto of Yirupaksa Rsi, who lived there in ancient 
times. Some also believe that even now he lives invisible in the 
mountain, and others say that some fortunate villager sometimes descries 
him as an old man with a long white beard and grey hair, roving 
early in the morning over the hill bright as the sun, singing angelic 
songs, but vanishing at the approach of man. 
The inscription is on the vertical side of a cliff facing the west. 
The surface is smooth and there are no fissures visible. The inscrip¬ 
tion is written in three lines, with a symbolic ornamented circle at 
the top. Almost the whole is in an excellent state of preservation. 
The letters are cut deep and clearly by the hand of a skilful engraver. 
The average size is nearly 4." The characters belong to the class 
which Dr. Fleet calls ‘ the North Indian Alphabet of the 4th century 
A.D.’ All the letters closely resemble those of the ‘ Meharaull 
Posthumous Iron Pillar Inscription of Candra.,’ first brought to notice 
in our Society’s Journal in 1834, and subsequently published in other 
numbers, and lately by Dr. Fleet in his Corpus Inseriptionum Indica- 
rum, Vol. Ill, plate XXI A. 
In respect of orthography the only points deserving of notice, are 
the doubling of k followed by r, as in line 1 in Cakkra-svdminah , and 
the doubling of m preceded by r , as in line 2, in pater mmahdraja. 
The language is Sanskrit and the version prose. 
The circle at the top with its adjuncts represents, I think, the 
bright discus ( cakra ) of Visnu, whose name as Cakra-svamin appears 
at the commencement of the inscription. 
Regarding the posthumous inscription of Candra in the Meharaull 
pillar, Dr. Fleet says :— 
‘ My own impression at first on independent grounds, was to allot 
it to Candra-gupta I., the first Mali ara j adli i raj a of the family, of 
whose time we have as yet no inscription, and I should not be sur¬ 
prised to find any time that it proved to belong to him. The only 
objection that I can see, is that it contains no reference to the Indo- 
Scythians, by overthrowing whom the early Guptas must have estab- 
liahed themselves.’ ( Fleet’s Corp. Ins. Ind. Ill. p. 140 n.). 
