The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.109

Language: English

v2.c16.109.1

**Hathi Gumpha** :—To the north-west, and a few feet above the level of the top of the Vaikuṇṭhapura Gumphā, there is a large cave of irregular shape, which bears the name of Hāthi Gumphā or ‘Elephant cave’. It appears like a natural cavern extended by art, but without any order or plan. The forms of the plinths, seats and pillars, as also the chisel-marks on the sides, walls and roof, leave no doubt as to the extension being due to art, but the entrance is so irregular, that it may well pass for a natural cave.¹⁷ Two rough-hewn blocks along the middle divide the area of the cave longitudinally into two ranges, and three compartments behind, the front being left to form a verandah of one opening with a very irregular outline. There is no demarcation between the side walls, and the roof, and the appearance everywhere is that of natural cave. A portion of the northern end has the floor raised about two feet from the level of the rest of the ground. On the two sides of the entrance which faces the south-west, there are two small caves carefully cut in the shape of cubes of 4 feet a side, with a doorway scarcely large enough to admit a small sized man crawling in. In no part of the large cave is there anything like architectural ornament or artistic finish, and the cave would have deserved no notice, but for a magnificent inscription in the most ancient *Lāṭ* character, incised on the scarped rock over its entrance.

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The inscription is fourteen feet long and six feet broad, and comprises seventeen lines, each letter being about two inches in length. Owing to its exposed position facing the south-west, and the fragile character of the stone in which it is cut, the record has suffered serious injury in several places; but enough still remains to show that it is perhaps the [17] oldest Indian engraved document that has come down to us. Mr. Sterling first drew the attention of Anglo-Oriental antiquarians to it in his elaborate and interesting essay on Orissa, and pointed out the relation it bore to the character of the Fīrūz and other Lāṭs of Northern India. But the facsimile he published was so very defective that nothing could be made of it. In 1837, Lieutenant M. Kittoe visited the place on three several occasions, and prepared a facsimile, of which a reduced copy, with transcript and a translation, was published by James Prinsep in the sixth volume of his *Journal*. (Plate LVIII). According to Prinsep, “Nothing short of an impression, (and from the nature of the rock, an impression was impossible), could surpass in fidelity Mr. Kittoe’s twice-compared facsimile”, and on the whole the praise was well-deserved. But bearing in mind that the record covers an area of about eighty-four square feet, it is not to be wondered at, should the reading now offered to the public, which has been made out from a plaster cast prepared under the superintendence of Mr. H. H.

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Locke of the Government School of Art, prove to be in some respects different. The record has since Lieutenant Kittoe’s time suffered extensive injury, and many letters, at times eight or ten in one place, which judging from his facsimile, were then perfectly clear, are now no longer legible. These in the subjoined reading I have copied from the old fascimile. Mr. Prinsep’s translation was prepared under many disadvantages, and in concluding what he called his “hurried and imperfect, notice”, Prinsep deemed it necessary to apologise for “offering it to the Society in so immature a shape”.¹⁸ I have, therefore, analysed below the first six lines of the text word by word, and ventured in my translation to make several changes and emendations which have materially altered the sense, and given quite a different turn to several salient points of the record. The last eleven lines are so sadly injured and so full of breaks that in none can an entire sentence be made out; I have not been able, therefore, to subject them to the same process of analysis, but have been obliged to content myself with copying Prinsep’s version with only occasional obvious corrections.