Eran Pillar Inscription of the time of Budhagupta

Author of digital edition: Dániel Balogh (daba).

Language: Sanskrit (san) [Southern Brāhmī (other) (brāhmī_southern_other)].

Repository: SIDDHAM (siddham).

Identifier: DHARMA_INSSiddham00045.

File path: XML-Provisional/DHARMA_INSSiddham00045.xml.

Version: 2026-09-16 10:40 (3083d2d), last modified 2026-09-16 09:24 (c200993).

Edition

⟨1⟩ jayati vibhuś catur-bhujaś catur-arṇṇava-vipula-salila-paryyaṅkaḥ jagataḥ sthity-utpatti-(vya?)[yaika?]-
⟨2⟩ -hetur ggaruḍa-ketuḥ śate pañca-ṣaṣṭy-adhike varṣāṇāṁ bhūpatau ca budhagupte āṣāḍha-māsa-ś(ukla)-
⟨3⟩ -(dvā)daśyāṁ suraguror ddivase| saṁ 100 60 5 kālindī-narmmadayor mmadhyaṁ pālayati lokapāla-guṇair jjagati mahār(āja)-
⟨4⟩ -śriyam anubhavati suraśmicandre ca| asyāṁ saṁvatsara-māsa-divasa-pūrvvāyāṁ sva-karmmābhiratasya kratu-yāji(naḥ)
⟨5⟩ Adhīta-svādhyāyasya viprarṣer mmaittrāyaṇīya-vr̥ṣabhasyendraviṣṇoḥ prapauttreṇa pitur guṇānukāriṇo varuṇav(i)ṣ(ṇoḥ)
⟨6⟩ pauttreṇa pitaram anujātasya sva-vaṁśa-vr̥ddhi-hetor hariviṣṇoḥ puttreṇātyanta-bhagavad-bhaktena vidhātur icchayā svayaṁ-varayeva r(ā)ja-
⟨7⟩ -lakṣmyādhigatena catuḥ-samudra-paryyanta-prathita-yaśasā Akṣīṇa-māna-dhanenāneka-śattru-samara-jiṣṇunā mahārāja-mātr̥viṣṇun(ā)
⟨8⟩ tasyaivānujena tad-anuvidhāyin(ā) tat-prasāda-parigr̥(hī)tena dhanya-viṣṇunā ca{|} ¿mātr̥?-pittroḥ puṇyāpyāyanārtham eṣa bhagavataḥ{|}
⟨9⟩ puṇya-janārddanasya janārddanasya dhvaja-stambho bhyucchritaḥ svasty astu go-brāhmaṇa-p(u)rogābhyaḥ sarvva-prajābhya Iti|

Bibliography

First noticed (with transliteration, translation and eye copy) in Prinsep 1838, pp. 633–634. Translation reprinted in Prinsep & Thomas 1858, p. 249. Reading and translation revised in Hall 1861, pp. 17–20. Discussed and corrected in Cunningham 1880, pp. 81–82. Critically edited in Fleet 1888. Summarised in Trivedi & Trivedi 2001, p. 21 (No. 6).

Originally encoded for Siddham in the project Beyond Boundaries (Grant Agreement No. 609823) by Dániel Balogh (2019, № IN00045). Encoding updated to DHARMA conventions by Dániel Balogh.

Secondary

Fleet, John Faithfull. 1888. Inscriptions of the early Gupta kings and their successors. First edition. Vol. 3. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing. Item 19.

Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramakrishna, Bahadur Chand Chhabra & Govind Swamirao Gai. 1981. Inscriptions of the early Gupta kings. Corpus inscriptionum indicarum 3, revised edition. New Delhi: Archaeological survey of India. Item 39.

Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramakrishna. 1927–1936. A list of the inscriptions of northern India in Brahmi and its derivative scripts, from about 200 A. C.: Appendix to Epigraphia Indica and record of the Archaeological Survey of India, volumes XIX to XXIII. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India. [URL]. Item 1287.

Sircar, Dines Chandra. 1965. Select inscriptions bearing on Indian history and civilization. Volume I: from the sixth century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. 2nd edition revised and enlarged. Calcutta: University of Calcutta. Book III, item 35.

Agrawala, Prithvi Kumar. 1983. Imperial Gupta Epigraphs (गुप्ताधिराजलेखमण्डल). Ancient Indian Epigraphical Sources (प्रत्नाभिलेखसंहिता) 10, pt. 1 / 2. Varanasi: Books Asia, Distributed by Prithvi Prakashan. Item 54.

Goyal, Śrīrām. 1993. गुप्तकालीन अभिलेख/Guptakālīna Abhilekha (Inscriptions of the Gupta Age). Jodhpur: Kusumanjali Prakashan. Items 288-289.

Display Options Word Wrap Line Numbers Comments Processing Instructions

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?xml-model href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erc-dharma/project-documentation/master/schema/latest/DHARMA_Schema.rng" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?>

<?xml-model href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erc-dharma/project-documentation/master/schema/latest/DHARMA_SQF.sch" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"?>

<?xml-model href="https://epidoc.stoa.org/schema/latest/tei-epidoc.rng" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?>

<?xml-model href="https://epidoc.stoa.org/schema/latest/tei-epidoc.rng" schematypens="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"?>

<title>Eran Pillar Inscription of the time of Budhagupta</title>

<forename>Dániel</forename>

<surname>Balogh</surname>

</persName>

</respStmt>

<funder>European Research Council (ERC), grant agreement no 809994</funder>

</titleStmt>

<authority><ref target="https://dharmalekha.info">DHARMA</ref></authority>

<pubPlace>Berlin</pubPlace>

<idno type="filename">DHARMA_INSSiddham00045.xml</idno>

<!--

If this file is moved into a named DHARMA corpus, retain the Siddham identifier as <altIdentifier>

-->

</publicationStmt>

<repository>DHARMAbase</repository>

<idno/>

</msIdentifier>

</msContents>

<p/>

</handDesc>

</physDesc>

</msDesc>

</sourceDesc>

</fileDesc>

<p>Encoded in TEI/EpiDoc according to the <ref target="https://hal.science/halshs-02888186">DHARMA Encoding Guide for Documentary Editions, version 2</ref></p>

</encodingDesc>

<change who="part:daba" when="2023-05-15" status="draft">Additional global changes for compatibility with DHARMA</change>

<change who="part:axja" when="2021-07-06" status="draft">Updating toward the encoding template v03</change>

<change who="part:daba" when="2020-08-04" status="draft">Initial import: harmonising file structure with DHARMA inscription template v02. Text and comments as inherited from the Siddham archive of January 2019, unless otherwise indicated (by a name and date in the comment). Comments are offered "as is" and do not represent a thoroughly considered or researched opinion.</change>

</revisionDesc>

</teiHeader>

<body>

<l n="ab"><lb n="1"/>jayati vibhuś catur-bhujaś catur-arṇṇava-vipula-salila-paryyaṅkaḥ<!--

Though not noted so by either Bhandarkar or Agrawala (but observed by Lielukhine on his website), the beginning of this stanza looks unmetrical to me: there is syncopation from the second to the third foot. *jayativi:bhuścatu:rabhujaś would be metrically fine and may have been the way the author pronounced it.

--></l>

<l n="cd">jagataḥ sthity-utpatti-<unclear cert="low">vya</unclear><supplied reason="lost" cert="low">yaika</supplied><lb n="2" break="no"/>-hetur ggaruḍa-ketuḥ<!--

The end of this line is broken away; part of the top and part of the subscript ya are visible of the character read here as vya. Hall reads nya and reconstructs nyayādi. Fleet follows, so does Agrawala. Bhandarkar suggests nyayaika instead. His editor (Gai? see Bhandarkar_1981:340n4) remarks that the upper part of the consonant seems to be v rather than n, as v is of an angular shape throughout the inscription, while nya in line 8 is quite different. Thus Gai (or whoever) suggests the restoration vyapāya. I find his arguments for vya convincing, but the lost akṣaras could have been any of those proposed above; my personal preference is for vyayaika. There is no visible punctuation sign at the end, though there is a small space.

--></l>

</lg>

<l n="ab">śate pañca-ṣaṣṭy-adhike varṣāṇāṁ bhūpatau ca budhagupte<!--

Again there is syncopation here (again observed only by Lielukhine), from the first to the second foot. Also, the first foot is not supposed to be . = ., so even assuming a pronunciation like *pañaca would not save the metre.

--></l>

<l n="cd">āṣāḍha-māsa-ś<unclear>ukla</unclear><lb n="3" break="no"/>-<unclear>dvā</unclear>daśyāṁ suraguror ddivase|<!--

Prinsep read trayodaśyāṁ, which is unmetrical. The first syllable is damaged; Bhandarkar feels it is "very distinctly" dvā. It is quite unclear on the facsimile, but dvā is plausible; śuklaikādaśyāṁ would also be possible, though the caesura would be obscured by saṁdhi in that case. This means that arguments hinging on this weekday for calculating the Gupta epoch need a pinch of salt. With my photos: ukla is in fact illegible and restored: only the left edge of ś remains, the stone is worn smooth after that. dvā is very unclear but very likely at the beginning of l2; da is completely illegible.

--><!--

The punctuation sign at the end of the stanza is a horizontal dash; there may be dots above and below it.

--></l>

</lg>

<l n="ab">kālindī-narmmadayor mmadhyaṁ pālayati lokapāla-guṇair</l>

<l n="cd">jjagati mahār<unclear>āja</unclear><lb n="4" break="no"/>-śriyam anubhavati suraśmicandre ca|<!--

The punctuation is a dash.

--></l>

</lg>

<p>asyāṁ saṁvatsara-māsa-divasa-pūrvvāyāṁ sva-karmmābhiratasya kratu-yāji<unclear>naḥ</unclear> <lb n="5"/>Adhīta-svādhyāyasya viprarṣer mmaittrāyaṇīya-vr̥ṣabhasyendraviṣṇoḥ prapauttreṇa pitur guṇānukāriṇo varuṇav<unclear>i</unclear>ṣ<unclear>ṇoḥ</unclear> <lb n="6"/>pauttreṇa pitaram anujātasya sva-vaṁśa-vr̥ddhi-hetor hariviṣṇoḥ puttreṇātyanta-bhagavad-bhaktena vidhātur icchayā svayaṁ-varayeva r<unclear>ā</unclear>ja<lb n="7" break="no"/>-lakṣmyādhigatena catuḥ-samudra-paryyanta-prathita-yaśasā Akṣīṇa-māna-dhanenāneka-śattru-samara-jiṣṇunā mahārāja-mātr̥viṣṇun<unclear>ā</unclear> <lb n="8"/>tasyaivānujena tad-anuvidhāyin<unclear>ā</unclear> tat-prasāda-parigr̥<unclear>hī</unclear>tena dhanya-viṣṇunā ca<surplus>|</surplus> <choice><sic>mātr̥</sic><corr>mātā</corr></choice>-pittroḥ puṇyāpyāyanārtham eṣa bhagavataḥ<surplus>|</surplus><lb n="9"/>puṇya-janārddanasya janārddanasya dhvaja-stambho bhyucchritaḥ<!--

In l5, both Bhandarkar and Agrawala print pitur gu° rather than rggu. The facsimile is quite illegible here, but the height of the letter seems to confirm this. Moreover, there seem to be two characters between ṇā (which is quite clear) and kāriṇo (which is again quite clear).

--><!--

At the end of l9, Bhandarkar prints a daṇḍa as unclear; Agrawala shows it as clear and superfluous. I see neither a clear visarga, nor a clear punctuation mark, only a large, mostly vertical smudge after ta.

--><!--

The horizontal punctuation mark at the end of l8 is longer than the (similarly superfluous) mark in the middle of l8. It may have been used here as a space filler..

--></p>

<p>svasty astu go-brāhmaṇa-p<unclear>u</unclear>rogābhyaḥ sarvva-prajābhya Iti|<!--

I cannot make out the final punctuation.

--></p>

</div>

<lem/>

</app>

</listApp>

</div>

</div>

</div>

<p>First noticed (with transliteration, translation and eye copy) in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Prinsep1838_03"/><citedRange>633-634</citedRange></bibl>. Translation reprinted in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Prinsep1858_01"/><citedRange>249</citedRange></bibl>. Reading and translation revised in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Hall1861_02"/><citedRange>17-20</citedRange></bibl>. Discussed and corrected in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Cunningham1880_01"/><citedRange>81-82</citedRange></bibl>. Critically edited in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Fleet1888_01"/></bibl>. Summarised in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Trivedi+Trivedi2001_01"/><citedRange>21</citedRange></bibl> (No. 6).</p>

<p>Originally encoded for Siddham in the project Beyond Boundaries (Grant Agreement No. 609823) by Dániel Balogh (<bibl rend="omitname"><ptr target="bib:Balogh2019_03"/><citedRange unit="item">IN00045</citedRange></bibl>). Encoding updated to DHARMA conventions by Dániel Balogh.</p>

</listBibl>

</listBibl>

</div>

</body>

</text>

</TEI>