IN00001 Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta

Fleet, John F., Inscriptions of the Early Guptas (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. 3) (Calcutta: Government of India, Central Publications Branch, 1888): 10-17.

Prepared by Razieh B. Golzadeh

1) [Who]……by his own kinsmen………., ………;—whose……….;

2) [Who]……twanging (of the bow-string)……burst open and scattered……… disheveled………;

3) Whose mind is surcharged with happiness in consequence of his association with the wise, who is thus accustomed to retain the truth and purpose of (any) science;………fixed…… upraised…….who, removing impediments to the grace of good poetry, through the very injunction (ājñā) of (poetic) excellence (guṇa), clustered together (guṇita) by the experts, enjoys, in the literate world, in an attractive fashion, sovereignty, in consequence of fame for copious lucid poetry.

4) (Exclaiming) ‘Come, oh worthy (one),’ and embracing (him) with hair standing on end and indicating (his) feeling, (his) father, perceiving (him) with eyes overcome with affection, (and) laden with tears (of joy), (but) discerning the true state (of things), said to him ‘so protect (thou) the whole earth,’ while he was being looked up with sad faces by others of equal birth, (but) while the courtiers were breathing cheerfully.

5) Beholding whose many super-human actions, some felt the thrill of marvel and burst into a display of great joy, some relishing with feeling……., some afflicted with his prowess, sought (whose) protection after performing obeisance;………

6) (Whose enemies), whose offence was always great, being conquered by his arm in battles ……. Day by day………pride………(develop) repentance, with their minds filled with delight (and) expanding with much evident pleasure and affection.

7) By whom, having (been) unassisted, with the force of the prowess of (his) arm, that rose up so as to pass all bounds, singly and in a moment, uprooted Acyuta and Nāgāsena and [Gaṇapati] come together in battle (against him) thereafter, causing, indeed, the scion of the Kota family to be captured by (his) armies, (while) amusing himself at (the city) named Puṣpa, while the sun……the banks…...

8) (Being) the enclosing structure of Dharma (Sacred Law), (his) multifarious sprouting fame is as bright as the rays of the moon, (his) erudition pierces down to truth……quiescence……, the course of (his) wise utterances is worthy of study, even (his) poetry, which out distances the greatness of the genius of (other) poets. What excellence is there which does not belong to him, who alone is a worthy subject of contemplation for those who can recognise merit and intellect?

17-18) Of him (who) was skillful in engaging in a hundred battles of various kinds; whose only ally was valour (parākrama), through the might of his own arm, and who (has thus) the epithet parākrama, whose most charming body was covered over with the plenteous beauty marks of hundreds of promiscuous scars, caused by battle-axes, arrows, spikes, spears, barbed darts, swords, iron clubs, javelins for throwing, barbed arrows, span-long arrows and many other weapons.

19-20) Whose magnanimity blended with valour was caused by (his) first capturing, and thereafter showing the favour of releasing, all the kings of Dakṣiṇāpatha such as Mahendra of Kosala, Vyāghrarāja of Mahākāntāra, Maṇṭarāja of Kurāḷa, Mahendragiṛ of Piṣṭapura, Svāmidatta of Koṭṭūra, Damana of Eraṇḍapalla, Viṣṇugopa of Kāñcī, Nīlarāja of Avamukta, Hastivarman of Veṅgī, Ugrasena of Pālakka, Kubera of Devarāṣṭra, and Dhanañjaya of Kusthalapura.

21) Whose extraordinary valour had been increased through the forcible extermination of many kings of Āryāvarta, such as, Rudradeva, Matila, Nāgadatta, Candravarman, Gaṇapatināga, Nāgasena, Ācyuta-Nandin, Balavarman—who made all the kings of the forest regions become (his) servants.

22-23) Whose imperious commands were fully gratified, with the payment of all tributes and execution of orders and visits (to his court) for obeisance, by such frontier rulers as those of Samataṭa, Ḍavāka, Kāmarūpa, Nepāla and Kartṛpura, and by the Mālavas, Ārjunāyanas, Yaudheyas, Mādrakas, Ābhīras, Prārjunas, Sanakānīkas, Kākas, Kharaparikas, and other (tribes).

23) (Whose) fame has tired itself with a journey over the whole world, caused by the restoration of many fallen kingdoms and overthrown royal families.

23-24) The unimpeded flow (prasara) of the prowess of (whose) arm (was arrested) by an earth embankment (dharaṇi-bandha) put up by means of service through such measures as self-surrender, offering (their own) daughters in marriage and a request for the administration of their own districts and provinces through the Garuḍa badge, by the Devaputra-Ṣāhi-Ṣāhānuṣāhi and the Śaka lords and by (rulers) occupying all island countries, such as Siṃhala.

24-26) He was without an antagonist on earth; he, by the overflowing of the multitude of (his) many good qualities adorned by hundreds of good actions, has wiped off the fame of other kings with the soles of (his) feet; (he is) Puruṣa (supreme being), being the cause of the prosperity of the good and the destruction of the bad (he is) incomprehensible; (he is) one whose tender heart can be captured only by devotion and humility; (he is) possessed of compassion; (he is) the giver of many hundred-thousand s of cows; (his) mind has received ceremonial initiation for the uplift of the miserable, the poor, the forlorn and the suffering; (he is) resplendent and embodied kindness to mankind; (he is) equal to (the gods) Kubera, Varuṇa, Indra and Yama; (his) Āyukta officers are always engaged upon restoring wealth (titles, territories, etc.) to the many kings conquered by the might of his arms.

27-28) (He) has put to shame Bṛhaspati by (his) sharp and polished intellect, as also Tumburu, Nārada and others by the graces of his musical performances; (his) title of ‘King of Poets’ has been established through (his) many compositions in poetry which were a means of subsistence to the learned people; (his) many wonderful and noble deeds are fit to be praised for a very long time; (he is) a human being, only as far as he performs the rites and conventions of the world, (otherwise he is) God, whose residence is (this) world.

28-30) This lofty column (is) the raised arm of the earth, proclaiming as it were, the fame that having pervaded the entire surface of the earth, with (its) rise that was caused by (his) conquest of the whole earth, has acquired an easy and graceful movement in that it has gone from here (i.e. from this world) to the abode of (Indra) the lord of the gods—(the fame) of that prosperous Samudragupta the mahārājādhirāja, son of the prosperous Candragupta (I), the mahārājādhirāja, born of the Mahādevī Kumāradevī, (and) daughter’s son of the Licchavi, son’s son of the prosperous Ghaṭotkaca, the mahārāja and the son of the son’s son of the prosperous Gupta, the mahārāja. Whose

30) Fame, ever ascending higher and higher masses, and travelling by many paths, (namely) by liberality, prowess of arm, sobriety and utterance of scriptural texts, purifies the three worlds, like the white water of the (holy river) Gaṅgā, dashing forth rapidly when liberated from the confinement in the inner hollow of the matted hair of Paśupati, (which rises up in even higher and higher masses and flows through many paths).

31-32) And may this poetic composition (kāvya) of Hariṣeṇa, the servant of the very same venerable Bhaṭṭāraka, whose mind has been enlightened through the favour of dwelling near (him), who is the sāndhivigrahika, kumārāmātya (and) mahādaṇḍanāyaka , (and who is) a native of Khādyaṭapāka, and son of the mahādaṇḍanāyaka Dhruvabhūti, lead to the welfare and happiness of all beings!

33) And (it) was executed by the mahādaṇḍanāyaka Tilabhaṭṭaka who mediates on the feet of the paramabhaṭṭā raka.