The Umachal rock inscription is one of the earliest epigraphic sources discovered in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

. Dated to the 5th century, the rock description was discovered in the north-eastern slopes of the Nilachal Hills (called Umachal), near

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

city. The artifact is dated primarily on the basis of the identification of the named Surendravarman with Mahendravarman (fl. c470-494) of the

Varman dynasty The Varman dynasty (350–650) was the first historical dynasty of the Kamarupa kingdom. It was established by Pushyavarman, a contemporary of Samudragupta. The earlier Varmans were subordinates of the Gupta Empire, but as the power of the Gup ...

. The script is in the eastern variety of the

Gupta script The Gupta script (sometimes referred to as Gupta Brahmi script or Late Brahmi script)Sharma, Ram. '' 'Brahmi Script' ''. Delhi: BR Publishing Corp, 2002 was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of the Indian subcon ...

and the language is

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

prose. Though the Nilachal Hills is known for the

Kamakhya Temple The Kamakhya Temple at Nilachal hills in Guwahati, Assam is one of the oldest and most revered centres of Tantra, Tantric practices. The temple is the center of the ''Kulachara Tantra Marga'' and the site of the Ambubachi Mela, an annual fes ...

, a ''shakta/tantra'' site, this temple was for

Balabhadra In Jainism, Balabhadra or Baladeva are among the sixty-three illustrious beings called ''śalākāpuruṣas'' that are said to grace every half cycle of time. According to Jain cosmology, ''śalākāpuruṣa'' are born on this earth in every ' ...

, a god of the Vaishnavite pantheon. Another inscription, the

Nagajari-Khanikargaon rock inscription The Nagajari-Khanikargaon rock inscription is a 5th-century land grant discovered in the Nagajari area of the Golaghat district. The artifact is fragmentary, with inscriptions in Sanskrit written in the eastern variety of the Gupta script, Brahmi ...

, though undated, is sometimes claimed, on stylistic grounds, as the earliest.

Text

''mahārājādhirāja-śrī'' ''surendravarmmaṇā-kr̥tma'' ''bhagavataḥ-valabhadra'' ''svmināya-idaṁ-guhaṁ''

Translation

"This cave (-temple) of the illustrious Lord Balabhadra has been constructed by Maharajadhiraja Sri Surendra Varman."

Notes

References

* * {{refend Kamarupa (former kingdom) Sanskrit inscriptions in India History of Guwahati 5th-century inscriptions

Text

Translation

See also

Notes

References