No. 2. A PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF MAHAKSHATRAPA RUPIAMMA.
V. V. MIRASHI - EI, XXXVII No. 36
Pawni on the bank of the Waingaкgа in the Bhandara District is an ancient place. Many
years ago an inscription and a stone relic box are said to have been found there, but no
notice of them has been preserved and they are not traceable now. Nearly thirty years ago
the place was inspected by the late Rao Bahadur K. N. Dikshit who recommended to
Government some sites for protection. A notice was accordingly issued, but it was not
followed up. Soon after the foundation, of the Madhya Pradesh Samshodhan Mandal I visited
the place in company with some members of the Mandal. Our attention was drawn to a large
inscribed slab which was then lying in a pit there. The inscription was copied and later
edited by me in this Journal.\1 It records the establishment of a pаdukа-paттa by
Bhagadatta, the king of the Bhаra family. It is not dated, but on the evidence of
palaeography it may be referred to the beginning of the Christian era.
The slab has since been removed to the Central Museum, Nagpur. Later, a small coin was
found in the same pit. It is of Dimabhаga and has been published by me in the Journal of
the Numismatic Society of India.\2
The present pillar inscription was discovered while digging in a field belonging to Mr.
Maniram Lanjewar at Pawni nearly eight years ago. It remained unnoticed until Mr. G. N.
Dikshit, my former student and now Head Master of the Waingaкgа High School at Pawni,
drew my attention to it nearly two years ago. He sent me an eye-copy of the record at my
suggestion. It was not possible to read the whole record from it, but it clearly showed
the word Sidhaм in the beginning, which indicated that it was an ancient record. I then
requested Mr. V. P. Rode, Curator of the Central Museum, Nagpur, to get the record copied
for me. He kindly sent Mr. Mulay of the Museum to Pawni for the purpose. From the
estampages taken by him the record could be read completely. Later it was also copied by
Dr. G. S. Gai in the course of his visit to Nagpur. The stone containing the inscription
has since been removed to the Museum. I edit the inscription here from an excellent
estampage supplied by Dr. Gai.\3
The record is inscribed on a fragment of a stone pillar which is broken irregularly. It
measures 30 cm in breadth and from 30 to 57 cm in height. On this fragment there is at the
top a semicircular figure of a half lotus,
measuring 13 cm in height and below this, separated by two horizontal lines, there is an
inscription in three lines in early Brаhmи characters. The first two lines measure
nearly 29 cm but the third is only 9 cm in length. The characters are of about the second
century A.D.
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1 Above, Vol. XXIV, pp. 11 ff.
2 JNSI, Vol, VI, pp. 9 f.
3 [The inscription has been noticed in A. R. Ep., 1964-65, No. B 346 and introduction p.
7. -Ed.]
TEXT
1 Sidhaм [|*] Mahakhattava-Kumаrasa
2 Rupiaмmasa chhаyа-
3 khaмbho [|*]