Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of India 1927-28/Section 8

by the Archæological Survey of India

SECTION VIII.-MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF PUSHKARANA MENTIONED IN THE

SUSUNIA INSCRIPTION OF CHANDRAVARMAN.

By Mr. K. N. Dikshit.

A short inscription consisting of 3 lines written in early Gupta characters and composed of two different parts was discovered a few years ago on the surface of a rock at Susunia, a sandstone hill 12 miles to the north-west of Bankura, the headquarters of the District of the same name. Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Sastri published the records in Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIII, p. 133. The first record purports to be the work (kriti) of the Maharaja Sri-Chandravarman, the son of the Maharaja Simhavarman, the lord (adhipati) of Pushkarana. Apparently, the work referred to is the cave (now destroyed) on the back wall of which the inscription and a discus' or chakra were engraved. The second inscription ('B') which consists of a single line, has been somewhat imperfectly read by Mahamahopadhyaya Sastrī, the more probable reading of which is

" Chakrasvamino(e) Dhosagrāmo-tisrishtah "

which would mean that the village Dhosagrima was made over to Chakrasvamin. The characters of the inscriptions show the squared forms of letters and cannot be considered to be so early as the Mehrauli pillar inscription of Chandra. In editing another inscription, viz. the Mandasor inscription of Naravarman'^[1], Mr. Sastri has tried to identify the Chandravarman of the Susunia inscription with the Chandra of the Mehrauli pillar and the brother of Naravarman of the Mandasor inscription. He has further suggested that the Pushkarana of the Susunia inscription must be identical with the town of Pokharan on the borders of Jodhpur and Jaisalmir States. Apart from the improbability of the dynasty of the Varma kings of Malwa whose inscriptions are found only in Malwa and Eastern Rajputana, having their capital Pushkarana so far west, I desire to suggest the possibility of a more satisfactory identification of Pushkarana of the Susunia inscription. At a distance of less than 25 miles to the north-east of Susunia is an ancient village named Pokharan on the south bank of the river Damodar. It is still a considerably large village and its antiquity is attested by the fact that the houses in several quarters of the village are built on the top of mounds, formed by the ruined heaps of older habitations, 3 to 5 feet higher than the level of the roads. In the western extremity of the village, exists a large mound called "the Rajghar" strewn over with broken bricks, pottery pieces and other antiquities. Several architectural stones are to be seen in the village, one of which measuring 2'-6"x1'-3" appeared to be a rough worked sandstone from the upper Damodar valley. Another stone kept in the open yard of a house shows the 'sow and ass' figure, familiar from its occurrence on land grants. There are several small tanks in the vicinity of a large tank (pokhar or pushkara) in the west of the village, and the name Pokharana or Pushkaraṇa must doubtless be ultimately due to the presence of such a tank in ancient times. It is very likely that the place dates back from the early Gupta period and can thus be considered to be the Pushkaraṇa of the Susunia inscription, the capital of King Chandravarman, son of Siṁhavarṁan, the extent of whose dominions may have been more or less coterminous with the ancient Rāḍha country or south-west Bengal.

1. Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, p. 315.