112 
Three Sanskrit Inscriptions . 
[No. 2, 
The inscription begins with a doxology to Vishnu; to the lotus 
of his navel; to Brahma, who originated therefrom.; to Brahma’s 
son, Atri; and to the Moon, which emanated from one of Atri’s 
eves. 
•/ 
From the Moon, by a daughter of the Sun, sprung Bodhana; and 
Among the descendants of Pururavas was Bharata. To him the 
Haihayas traced their origin ; and from these came Kartavirya, the 
founder of the family of Kalachuri.* To this family belonged the 
last dynasty that dominated over Chedi. 
For want of context, and from other causes, entire certainty as to the drift of 
this throughout is impossible. But that thus much is asserted, one may be 
pretty confident. Kaundinya, entitled Yachaspati, was premier of a Raja Krish¬ 
na, and dwelt on the Vetravati. After discomfiting the lord of Chedi, by slay¬ 
ing a S'abara named Sinlia,—probably the Chedian generalissimo,—he establish¬ 
ed the district of Bala, and JRodapadi, which, also, seems to denominate a dis¬ 
trict. Manifestly in honour of these successes, he repaired to the places where 
the inscription was set up, and had these lines written in praise of the sun, 
under the epithet of Bhailla; which divine luminary is invoked to serve as King 
Krishna's protector. Gajankus'eya composed the eulogy, and Kakuka copied it. 
Apparently, Krishna’s newly annexed districts were wrested from Chedi. But 
whether that kingdom reached, previously, as far towards the west, as the banks 
of the Yetravati, is undetermined. As for the antiquity of the memorial, it 
would be unsafe to base any conclusion on its palaeography, lam convinced, 
from inspection of inscriptions nearly contemporary, that archaism of appearance 
was sometimes studiously affected in these records. 
There is no ground to suppose, that the inscription was brought to Bhelsa 
from a distance. Once displaced from its original position, it must have had— 
such is the Indian indifference to relics of the past—no value except for the feet 
and inches of the tablet on which it is engraved; and the vicinity of Bhelsa 
does not want for stone-quarries. The sun, as Bhailla, was, we see, once an ob¬ 
ject of worship. At first sight, the word has, certainly, a barbarous aspect ;* 
and yet it may possibly have been formed, anomalously, from bhd, “ light” and 
the Yaidika root il, defined by the grammarians “to throw:” “the thrower of 
light.” Euphony may have doubled the final consonant. To Bhailla add a s'a, 
and the combination is Bhdillesa. Soften this, and we easily account for Bliel- 
sa. Bhailla, as will be seen a lew pages on, at one period gave name to a tract 
of country comprising twelve districts. 
It may now be considered as certain, that Bhelsa was not so called because of 
its occupation by Bheels. See this Journal, for 1847, p. 745. 
Independently of the references in this paper, Bhailla, the divinity, is men¬ 
tioned in an inscription somewhere in Gwalior, of which I have formerly spoken. 
Vide p. 7, Supra, second foot-note. 
* Or, optionally, it should seem, Kulachuri. In the sixth stanza of the 
follow ing inscription is Kulachuri; but Kalachuri is implied in the thirteenth 
stanza. The latter form is read, unmistakably, on the Gopalpur tablet. See, 
further note d, at p. 517 of the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 
Yol. YI. 
The tablet just adverted to is said to have been transported from Karanbel, 
a few miles distant from the spot where it now lies. I examined it on the fifth 
[* Might it be the Prakrit termination ilia for matup ? Yararuchi (iv. 25) 
gives mdiailla for malavat. —Eds. j 
