No. 3. Junagadh inscription of Jèvadàman (I).

R. D. Banerji - EI, XVIII, No. 39.
(RB) The inscription which is edited below for the first time, was discovered by some labourers on the top of the citadel of Junàgadh fort during the rainy season of 1919. Mr. S. Brook-Fox, the then Chief Engineer of the Junàgadh State, removed the stone slab on which it is written to the State Office building and, sending its inked impression, informed the Archeological Survey Department of its discovery. It is now deposited in the Bahàdur Khàn-ji Museum, Junàgadh. During my visit in the month of October of the same year I read the inscription from the stone and took its estampages for publication.
The record is incised on a heavy slab of stone, the inscribed surface of which measures 31 inches by 10 inches. At present, it consists of two short lines mutilated both at the beginning and at the end. The first line begins with the word køatrapasya and ends with the numerical symbol for 100. The second line begins with a proper name and ends with the word putra. The length of each of these two lines is 30" and the average height of the letters is 2 1/2". Judging, however, from their contents it would appear that originally these lines were considerably longer. The slab bearing the inscription must have been used for building purposes. It was found with its face turned downwards in the debris of an old structure. When I saw it in the State Office at Junàgadh, the letters were full of plaster or mortar made of powdered bricks (soorkhi) and lime. Possibly, there were several other lines below the second one which were mutilated when the stone was broken up to suit the requirements of the mason.
The characters of the inscription are of the usual type used in Western India in the second century A.D. and akin to the alphabet in which the Àndhau inscriptions of Rudradàman I are written. The lower parts of ka and ra curve to the left. The three verticals of ya are almost equal in height and all instances of the subscript form of this letter are tripartite. Va and the lower part of ma are rather triangular. Both the verticals oí pa are of equal height. In the only extant symbol of the palatal ùa the pendant drops from the right half of the curve instead of from the left, while the angularity is not quite marked. In the letter øa the cross bar is joined to the right vertical straight line and not to the left as usual in one case, i.e., in køatrapasya, while in the other, i.e., in varøå, it seems to join both the verticals.
The inscription is written in Sanskrit prose. The object of it, however, is not clear on account of its mutilated state. The portion giving the date is unfortunately damaged and nothing is legible at the end of the first line, except the symbol for 100. The record refers itself to the reign of Jèvadàman whose exact rank cannot be now ascertained because the portion of the slab, where his titles were in all probability written, is now missing. That he was a Køatrapa is certain as that title is prefixed to his name. Two Jèvadàmans are known to have had any connection with Kàthiàwàr. The first prince of that name was the son of Damajadaùrè I and the grandson of Rudradàman I, who is known from his coins to have ruled in Kàthiàwàr from the year 100 to 118 or 119 of the Ùaka era. The second prince of that name is Svàmi Jèvadàman, known to us from the coins of his son, Køatrapa Rudrasiìha II, who was ruling in Ùaka 227 and seems to have succeeded to the throne on the extinction of the direct descendants of Chàøòana or of the Mahàkøatrapa Rudrasiìha I. On paleographic grounds, I am of opinion that the inscription under examination pertains to the reign of the Mahàkøatrapa Jèvadàman I. The second line of this record contains four proper names : [Va]stradatta, Vàstunaìdika, Vastuùarmmaka and Ràmaka. The last word of the second line, if read as putrà [íàì] would show that the first three persons were the sons of Ràmaka. The inscription must have been incised to commemorate some pious act or the erection of some building by these three brothers.

TEXT. (RB)

1 . . . . .[køa]trapasya Sv[à]mi Jèvadàmasya åtàya pórvvàya varø[å] 100 . . . .
2 . . . . [Va]stradattasya Vàstuna[ì]dikasya Vas[tu]ùarmmakasya Ràmakasya putr[à]. . . .

Notes.(RB)
_____________
L. 1. The upper part of the ligature in køa is broken. The cross bar in øa in varøå is damaged. The last letter looks like ùa but the downward prolongation of the right vertical makes it certain that this letter is the symbol for 100. [This phrase - åtàya pórvvàya - usually follows the date.-Ed.]
L. 2 The restoration [Va]stradatta is tentative. The reading may be [Ùa]stradatta or [A]stradatta. The form of Và in Vàstunaìdika is peculiar. The base line is very much curved and the upper horizontal line has disappeared giving place to two curved lines which appear like bifurcations of the vertical.