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Component-I (A) – Personal Details Component-I (A) – Personal details: Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati . & Dr. K. Muniratnam Director i/c, Epigraphy, ASI, Mysore. Prof. Susmita Basu Majumdar Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. 1 Component-I (B) – Description of module: Subject Name Indian Culture Paper Name Indian Epigraphy Module Name/Title Literary Inscriptions : An Overview Module Id IC / IEP / 34 Pre requisites Objectives Keywords E-text (Quadrant-I) : Epigraphic sources have been used extensively for reading early Indian history. There are more than one lakh inscriptions reported from the Indian subcontinent and the number is increasing as inscriptions are being discovered regularly. On the basis of the commonness of content Richard Saloman has divided the inscriptions found in the Indian subcontinent into ten broad categories. These are as follows: 1. Royal donative and panegyric-Prasasti 2. Land grants- Copper Plate charters 3. Private Donations 4. Memorial inscriptions 5. Label inscriptions 6. Pilgrim’s and Travelers’ records 7. Cultic inscriptions 8. Literary inscriptions 9. Seal inscriptions 10. Miscellaneous inscriptions Of these ten categories the least number of inscriptions belong to the literary genre yet theu are quite significant. The term literary reveals that the content is primarily literary, but they are found engraved mainly on stone and walls. This category of inscriptions have brought forth some dramas and poems the texts of which are otherwise unknown. The question is that why these dramas were incised on stone? Among dramas on stone we have three major dramas i.e. the Lalitvigraharāja-nāṭaka and Harakeli-nāṭaka from Ajmer and the Pārijātamañjarī-nāṭikā or Vijayaśrī-nāṭikā from Dhar. Of these the Pārijātamañjarī-nāṭikā is also mentioned by the poet as a praśasti of reigning Paramara king, Arjunavarman (early 13th century CE). Thus the composer intended to glorify the king in whose court he was adorned also as his rājaguru or the royal preceptor. Though this is a praśasti or eulogy of the patron yet it can be considered essentially as literary creation as the composer himself mentions it as a nāṭikā. Most of these dramas are in the form of prasastis which also shows 2 that they were to be orally transmitted or enacted so that the masses are aware about the achievement of their ruler. Among literary inscriptions we also have some poetries which are found engraved on stone. Scholars in the past had considered Sitabenga inscription (c. 3rd- 2nd century BCE, Chhattisgarh) as the earliest poetry on stone but recently the present author has shown that this was not a poetry and neither can the site of Ramgarh caves (which has the two caves i.e. Sitabenga and Jogimara) be considered as an amphitheatre. Most of the literary inscriptions are from Madhya Pradesh. Some poems on stone have been reported from Dhar which can be called śatakas. The term śataka literally means 100 verses. Such poems are engraved on the walls of the Bhojaśālā at Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. Of the two śatakas mentioned above a peculiar character is that the authorship of both have been assigned to the celebrated Paramāra king Bhoja (first half of the 11th century CE). Bhoja shifted his capital from Ujjain to Dhārā and it became a great centre of learning as Bhoja was connoisseur of litterateurs. Even if the first śataka may be attributed to him but the second one i.e. the Avani Kūrmaśataka was definitely not his composition as the tone of the second one praising Bhoja himself is unlikely to have been his own composition. Both the śatakas begin with an invocation to Śiva. The name Kūrmaśataka is misleading and creates a confusion that these are poems in praise of the Kūrma incarnation of Viṣṇu. However these are all Śaiva compositions. In the first śataka Śiva is portrayed as lord of Pārvati. Pischel believed that the poems are dedicated to the kūrma or tortoise incarnation of Viṣṇu. But this is not the case as the verses clearly indicate that here the ādi kūrma has been praised. The śatakas are important from the point of view of kūrma symbolism and its development. Here the kūrma has been seen as the supporter of the earth and the analogy is with the ruler who also supports the earth like the ādi kūrma. In the second one Śiva’s Kaṅkāla mūrti has been praised. This form of Śiva is more popular in Southern part of the subcontinent which might also indicate that the poet who conceptualized the opening verses in the second śataka probably hailed from South India. These two śatakas have 109 verses each. As far as their literary value is concerned these are not of high order. There are other poems inscribed on stone which are also attributed to Bhoja and have been discovered from Dhar. Among these are the Khaḍga śataka and Kodaṇḍa kāvya also attributed to Paramāra king Bhoja; however, the poems could very well be works of his court poets. The language of these poems is Mahāraṣṭrī Prakrit. It is surprising that towards the end of the early medieval period there was again a revival of Prakrit literature and compositions in literary Prakrit were patronized. The quality of such compositions were not of high order yet the use of an obsolete language is quite interesting as by this time in most of the places regional languages were the lingua franca. Saloman also mentions about a few other compositions which can be considered under this genre of literary inscriptions. These are not dramas they were known as khaṇḍa and mahā- kāvyas such as the huge Rājapraśasti-mahākāvya of Raṇachoḍa in twenty-four sargas inscribed at Udaypur; though in form the Udaypur inscription is a mahākāvya, in content it is primarily eulogistic and dedicatory. However there are a few other records which are not purely literary inscriptions but their literary value is unmistakable. D. B. Diskalkar considered some compositions which are no doubt important from literary angle. Among which he considers the Junagarh praśasti of Rudradāman, Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta and the Aihole praśasti. Along with this he also mentions a few more 3 inscriptions like the Dudhpani rock inscription of Udayamana (c. 8th century CE) which is highly poetical. All these acan also be included in the literary inscription category. The dramas on stone have not been recovered fully. They have either been destroyed or only limited portions have been discovered. Fr example the drama Pārijātamañjarī is an unfinished one and was engraved on a pair of stones of which one is lost. This is mentioned as a nātikā and also a praśasti by thecomposer. The play was composed by a poet who was also the royal preceptor or rājaguru named Madana alias Bālasarasvati. It contains the story of Vijayaśrī or Pārijātamañjarī, Princess of Gurjara and daughter of Jayasiṁha, and her love affair followed by marriage to the victor over her father, Arjunavarman, a Paramara king. Besides being a nātikā or a play consisting of four acts this is also called a. The play breaks off at the end of Act II. The rest of the play is probably on the other slab which is missing. It may be possible to reconstruct it with the help of Śriharsha’s Ratnavali by which author seems to have been quite influenced. The characters in the play speak Sanskrit and Prakrit. The Prakrit passages in the play present a unique feature in that they are all in Saurasenī, even the prose passages, and not Mahārāshṭrī which is a deviation from the regular norm. The theme of the drama belongs to the typical vasantotsava naṭaka genre. It was for live performance in the sura sadana or hall or open space for performances in the temple of Goddess Sāradā. Madana, the composer, also claims, as was the trend, that he has composed a fresh play. The first act is Vasantotsavaḥ and the second act is named in Prakrit as Tāḍaṅka darpana i.e. the reflecting earring. This drama falls into a format of the Vasantotsava dramas which have a more or less uniform theme wherein the chief male character hails from a royal background with the burden of royal duties delegated to an able minister. The heroine is a maiden who is of the ‘simple’ or mugdha type and her identity is not revealed till the climax. The heroine by default hails also from a royal background which becomes the reason for the ultimate union with the hero. Polygamy is the norm in case of the hero and the heroine is never the chief queen; but their nuptial ties seem to be solemnized in secrecy, awaiting a social approval. This approval finally comes from the chief queen who delves into a ploy to harm the heroine and finally when she realizes the royal descent of the heroine she herself agrees to tie the knots for them i.e. her husband and the heroine. The chief queen here is of the jyesṭhā category of heroines. This model, advocated by most composers, is followed by Kālidāsa in his ‘Mālavikāgnimitra’ and by Śriharsa in his ‘Priyadarśikā’ and ‘Ratnāvali’. It is also the theme of the ‘Viddhasalabhanjika‘ by Rājaśekhara. However, it seems that Madana in this instance was mostly influenced by the ‘Ratnāvali’. Or in other words Madana was also trying to justify the literary skills by showing that he was well conversant with all the major literary creations of this genre. At the end of the second act the name of the engraver is mentioned in the drama Pārijātamañjarī which actually created a confusion giving an impression that this is the end of the composition.
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