Two Inscriptions from the Tripura State

Dr. D.C. Sircar’s article examines two previously unpublished stone inscriptions from the Tripura state. The first, the Dutyar Bari inscription, is affixed above the door of a dilapidated temple at Udaypur. Weathering and tree roots have damaged the nine lines of text, but Sircar was able to read passages describing the builder and the date. A Sragdhara stanza ends with numerals disguised as words—soma (moon), asvina (twins), rtu (six) and kṣiti (earth)—that add up to Saka 1621 (1699 A.D.). The verse also mentions a lady named Dvitiya, probably the temple’s patron. Sircar argues that the name refers to a noblewoman of the Tripura royal family rather than to a male general. The second inscription is a massive stone door‑frame found at Maharani village. It contains three records arranged on different parts of the slab; fourteen verses describe King Vijayamanikya and Queen Lakṣmīdevi building a temple for Viṣṇu and his consorts. Sircar notes that the verses are numbered and organised into groups labelled A, B and C. Record A recounts the transport of a single block of stone from a river to make the door‑frame, while record B identifies the locale as Lakṣmipura (now Maharani) and states that the idol was cast from an alloy of eight metals. All three records give the same date: the full‑moon day of Kārtika, Saka 1470 (17 October 1548 A.D.). Sircar remarks on the fine mid‑sixteenth‑century Bengali script and the use of the auspicious symbol siddhaṃ at the beginning of each record. He concludes that these inscriptions illuminate the history of Tripura by confirming the names of rulers, the role of queens in temple building, and local calendrical formulas. The article also points out that earlier Bengali publications misread or ignored these records; thus Sircar’s critical edition provides reliable texts and translations for scholars.

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