
The Tosham rock inscription, dating from the 4th or 5th century, on
Tosham hill in
Tosham town of
Haryana state in
India, is an
epigraph documenting the establishment of a monastery and the building of water tanks for followers of the
Satvata (ancient
Yadava kingdom. They also built the
Kalayat Ancient Bricks Temple Complex) and may have been vassals of the
Satavahana dynasty which disintegrated into smaller kingdoms during 3rd century during the time of
Gupta Empire.
Location
Tosham or Toshām is located in
Bhiwani District,
Haryana, India. The inscription is carved on a smooth rock face, high above about the town. In the immediate area are ruined brick structures and other archaeological traces. There are also
Tosham Rock Paintings and
Tosham Hill Fort on Tosham Hill.
Description and contents
The inscription records the lineage and building activities of a line of Sātvata religious preceptors (
ācārya) dating to the 4th and 5th centuries CE. This is an important record for the history of the
Vaiṣṇava
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
faith. The kinship and clan position of the Sātvatas is described in the article on the
Yadavas.
The inscription was first published by
John Faithfull Fleet in his 1888 publication ''Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum''. A new translation and fresh analysis was undertaken by M. Willis in ''The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual'', published in 2009.
Text
jitaṃ abhīkṣṇam eva jāmbavatīvadanāravindorjjitāḷinā
dānavāṅganāmukhāmbhojalakṣmītuṣāreṇa viṣṇunā
anekapuruṣābhyāgatāryyasātvatayogācārya-
bhagavadbhaktayaśastrātaprapautrasyācāryyaviṣṇutrātapautrasyācāryya-
vasudattap rasya rāvaṇyām utpannasya gotamasagotrasyācāryyaopāddhyāya-
yaśastrāta �njasyācāryyasomatrātasyedaṃ bhagavatpādopayo-
jyaṃ kuṇḍam uparyyāvasathaḥ ku-
ṇḍaṃ cāparaṃ
Translation: "Verily victory has been achieved again and again by Viṣṇu – a mighty bee on the water lily that is the face of Jāmbavatī – a very frost to the beauty of the water lilies which are the faces of the women of the demons! This reservoir and the residence above, and a second reservoir, intended for the use of the feet of the Lord, (are the work) of the ācārya Somatrāta, the great grandson of Yaśastrāta – a successor of many men (of preceding generations), an Ārya Sātvata, yogācārya and devotee of the Lord – the grandson of ācārya Viṣṇutrāta (and) the son, begotten on Rāvaṇī, of ācārya Vasudatta of the Gotama gotra (and) the younger brother of ācārya and upādhyāya Yaśastrāta."
Tosham rock paintings
An Indian newspaper,
the Tribune, reported that in 2013, rock paintings (dated to circa 5th century CE) were discovered at the site of the Tosham rock inscription. These rock paintings were said to include figures such as a royal family, a saint, and an orange dinosaur.
Rare rock painting of dinosaur discovered from Tosham Hills in state- by Sushil Manav, Tribune News Service, dated: 2 July 2013
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References
External links
The Asia Inscriptions Database
Cambridge University Press
Rock art in India
Sanskrit inscriptions in India
Gupta and post-Gupta inscriptions
History of Haryana