History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c19.3

c19.3

Durehā is a flourishing village at a distance of about 4 miles (S.) from the town of Jāso, the seat of the Chief of Jāso. Jāso is a small Bundela principality on the borders of Nagod (Nagaudh), Baghelkhand, Central India. Cunningham visited Durehā and noticed a stone monument which he described in his *Reports*, Vol. XXI, p. 99 (Plate 27), as ‘a natural *lingam*’. He gave an eye-copy of the inscription on it and a drawing of the monument. Since his time no one else went to the place to verify Cunningham’s record. Suspecting the inscription to be of importance, in my last tour in Bundelkhand I made enquiries about the place *Dareda* as Cunningham had spelt it. I came to know from my friend Mr. Śaradā Prasad of Satna that the correct name of the village is Durehā and I motored with him to the place. The monument is by the side of the unmetalled road in the village, standing on an artificial elevation. It is not a *lingam* at all, but a pillar; the side facing the south is made smooth by chisel, while its back is rough as it was hewn out of the quarry. Unfortunately when I returned from Nachnā and took an impression of the inscription it had become dark and the operations had to be done in artificial light. Below the inscription which consists of one line there is a wheel with 8 spokes, just as on Rudrasena’s coin and Pṛithivīsheṇa’s inscriptions of Ganj and Nachnā. Cunningham gives this inscription below, not above, the wheel in his eye-copy. It seems that the drawing given by him was done from memory, not on the spot, as the order of the inscription and the wheel is transposed and the shape of the stone is also not truly drawn. The stone is not round.¹