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Sanskrit grammar inscriptions, Bhojashala, Dhar
Background
Michael Willis wrote an article in Jan. 2012 issue of Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
attempting to show that the Sarasvati statue in British Museum is NOT that of Sarasvati but that
of Ambika. (Michael Willis, 2012, Dhar Bhoja and Sarasvati: from Indology to Political
mythology and back, JRAS, Series 3, 22,1, pp. 129-153), While he has failed in his attempt (as
detailed in the note Annex A), there has been a greater failure in not reporting on a crucial piece
of evidence establishing that the Sarasvati statue now in the British Museum was IN FACT,
taken from the Sarasvati Temple at Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. This evidence relates to two
inscriptions of Sanskrit grammar in the Sanskrit school set up there by King Bhoja in the temple.
This note discusses the provenance and details of these two inscriptions.
Importance of the finds
1. Bomb. Gaz. Vol. I, p. 180, states that the mosque was an old Sanskrit School founded by
Bhoja himself.
2. The contents of these Dhar sarpabandha (serpentine chart) inscriptions have been read
and are demonstrated to relate to teaching Sanskrit grammar to students in a class room in
Bhoja Shala, i.e. Bhoja’s Sanskrit school.
3. These two Sanskrit grammar inscription charts on stone were found on the pillars which
support the dome of what is today Kamal Mosque.
4. The pillars on which the inscriptions were found relate to the temple for Sarasvati.
5. The Sarasvati statue in British Museum contains an inscription on its base and refers to
her as Ambā, NOT Ambikā. Ambā is another name for Sarasvati as noted in a Annex A
citing Rigveda: ambitame, devitame, naditame Sarasvati. The second statue of Sarasvati
in British Museum is that of Vāgdevi (Divinity of Language. A reference to this statue
also occurs on the inscription at the bast of the first Sarasvati statue where Vararuchi
refers(in the inscription) to the fact that he had a statue of Vāgdevi made and now he is
getting the statue of Ambā..
6. The occurrence of the Sanskrit grammar inscriptions CONCLUSIVELY demonstrates
evidence for the Hindu tradition of Sarasvati as divinity of education, learning,
knowledge.
7. Temple for Sarasvati was part of the temple for Īśvara (i.e.śiva). An iron pillar (now
broken into 3 pieces) comparable to the Delhi iron pillar lies in front of the temple
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complex of Dhar, attesting to the possibility that this pillar was a dvhajastambham
(sacred pillar) of the temple.
I suggest that Sanskrit experts should try to transcribe Inscription B also and make both the
Sanskrit grammar charts an essential part of all schools teaching Sanskrit. I also suggest that a
booklet be made of these inscriptions to constitute a guide for students and teachers of Sanskrit
grammar in all institutions devoted to the study of Sanskrit.
Excerpt from Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, 1991, Harihar Vitthal Trivedi, ed., Vol. VII, Part
2 Inscriptions of the Paramaras, Chandellas, Kachchapaghatas and two minor Dynasties, Director
General, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi (pp.86 - 88):
[quote]
No. 26; Plates XXVII-XXIX (Inscription A + duplicate and Inscription B) The Dhar
inscriptions. These inscriptions, which are two in number and called here as A and B, were first
brought to light by Ernest Barnes in his article on Dhar and Mandu, published in the Journal of
the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XXI, 1900-02, pp. 330 ff., with a
photolithograph between pp. 350 and 351, in which he also incorporated a note on them by KK
Lele, Superintendent of Archaeology in the former State of Dhar. Lele also prepared two official
notes on the records (One of these was written in May, 1902, for presentation to Lord Curzon on
the occasion of his visit to Dhar; and the other, in 1929. I am indebted to Shri AW Wakankar of
Dhar, for lending me the only copies of these notes with him, for utilising them in this article);
and a description of the inscriptions appeared also in his work entitled Dhar and Mandu, on pp.
29-30, along with that on the preceding one, as already stated. Subsequently the inscriptions
were noticed briefly in the Annual Reports of the Western Circle of the Survey, for 1904-05, p. 8
(No. 2081) and again for 1912-13, pp. 21 and 55 (No. 2601); and finally, they were edited by KN
Sastri, without facsimiles, in theEpigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXI, p. 29 f., along with the one that
precedes and the other that follows.The inscriptions are edited here from my personal
examination of the originals and from an excellent impression of one of them (B) which I owe to
the Chief Epigraphist of the Archaeological Survey of India.
These inscriptions are on two separate pillars near the tomb of Kamal Maula mosque in the
monument known as Bhoja-shala, in the south-west part of Dhar, the principal town of a district
of the same name in Madhya Pradesh. The pillars are of grey lime stone and are among those
that support the dome of the prayer hall, one on each side of the raised pulpit, Each of the
inscriptions is complete in itself, though they are allied inasmuch as they deal with the same
subject of Nagari alphabet and grammatical terminology. The letters are beautifully engraved
and well preserved except that they have suffered from partial decay and peeling off in some
places, as the material of grey lime stone on which they were cut was not quite suitable for
incisions. (I am thankful to Shri Deshpande, technical assistant in the Arch. Surv. Of India at
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Mandu, for the information that the stones of the pillars are similar to those found in quarries in
the adjoining region, for example, at Tarapur, etc.) Here we may also point out that quite a large
number of some other inscriptions which were incised on the floor or pavement of the same
structure, appear to have been deliberately chiseled off so as to leave a letter here and there, in
some later time, were all on durable black stone, whereas the inconspicuous position of the
pillars appears to have saved them from the fate which the other inscriptions have undergone due
to vandalism. (Now nothing can be made out of these inscriptions except that they were in
Sanskrit and Prakrit).
A. The first of these inscriptions, which is on the proper right side of the pulpit and faces the
east, measures about 70 cms. in height and 30.5 cms. in breadth. The letters of the alphabet are
about 1 cm. in size, while those of the terminations in the tail are slightly smaller. The inscription
is written in the Nagari alphabet of about the 11-12th
century. The language is Sanskrit. It is an
alphabetical chart and its contents are identical with those of its counterpart in the Mahakala
temple inscription, as seen above. As the alphabet plays the chief part in this inscription, it has
rightly been called alphabetical.
B. This inscription, which is on the proper left side of the raised platform and faces the south, is
bigger in size, being 91.55 cms. high and 45 cms. in breadth. The language is Sanskrit; and the
palaeographical and orthographical peculiarities are the same as stated above. The inscription
commences with two verses in the Anushtubh metre, with the symbol for svasti in the beginning.
They are written in four lines, in a space 17 cms. broad and by 5 cms. high. They are identical
with verses 86-87 of the Ujjain inscription and are not marked. Below the verses and leaving a
vacant space measuring 13 cms. in height, we find a chart (bandha) made up by the intertwining
of two serpents, probably male and female, as Lele has rightly remarked, exhibiting on their
body the personal terminations of ten lakāras (tinvibhaktis) together with 16 dhātu-pratyayas.
The chart may be divided in three parts, viz., the top, the middle and the bottom portions. In the
top section the letters are very indistinct except for the initial atha, and they have been
conjecturally restored by Sastri as atha tin-vibhakti-bandhah; but as already remarked by Sircar
while publishing Sastri’s article, the letters appear as atha… dhātuh. (See Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXI,
p. 29, n. The letters are rather indistinct; but I read atha dhātuh between the heads of the serpents
and the word pratyaya straight down the base.)
The middle section of the chart is shaped as a square standing vertically on one of the angles of
the top section. It is divided into 180 compartments, each of which is a parallelogram cut by
‘drawing nine parallel lines one way and seventeen the other way across.’ The space between
each pair of parallel lines, as remarked by sastri, ‘is alternately closed by means of projecting
loops at eigther end along the four sides of the square turning the sets of parallel lines into two
running spirals end to end.’ The five loops and the five intervening open spaces between them, in
the upper left arm of the square, contain the initial letters of the terms denoting the different
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senses in which the ten lakāras, i.e., the tenses and moods of Sanskrit verbs, are used. These
letters are, in serial order, va, sa, vi, hy, a, pa, sva (śva), ā, bha and kri, respectively standing for
vartamāna, sambhāvanā, vidhi, hyastana-atīta, atīta-sāmānya, parokṣa, śvastana-bhaviṣyati,
āśīr, bhaviṣyat and kriyātipatti or kriyākrama, indicating, respectively, the ten lakāras from laṭ
to lṛin, excepting the Vedic lōṭ and taking vidhi-lin and āśīrlin separately. Thus there are
altogether 18 X 10 = 180 verbal terminations, of which, 90 of each set (known as parasmai- and
ātmanepada) are given in the chart.
(In his note Lele red the letter hya as pa and the preceding letter as sa, and took them as for
pancamī and saptamī, remarking that they are so called because they are the 5th
and 7th
in the
usual enumeration of the tenses. But to me the consonant of this letter appears as p and the sign
of the mātrā is clear, though mutilated.)
They are all duly numbered on the right hand side and arranged in slanting columns from the left
to the right, given in the spaces left between the ‘zigzag cross-turnings’ of the serpents. The two
sets of terminations (parasmai- and ātmane-), the three persons (prathama, madhyama and
uttama) and the three numbers (singular, dual and plural) are marked on the left-hand side, in
order, by the initial letters representing them; and the names of the tenses and moods are marked
at the top of each column by the initial letter of each. They may be arranged as under:
Intials Full name Panini’s name English name
1. Va vartamāna laṭ Present
2. sa sambhāvanā lin Potential
3. vi vidhi lōṭ Imperative
4. hya hyastanī lan Imperfect
5. a adyatanī lun Aorist
6. pa parokṣā liṭ Perfect
7. śva śvastanī luṭ First Future
8. ā āśīh āśīrlin Benedictive
9. bha bhaviṣyantī lṛiṭ Second Future
10. kri Kriyātipatti or
kriyākrama
lṛin Conditional
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The last section of the table is triangular, with its apex above. In its looped corner and also in the
hollow circles along its arms, are engraved the several derivative bases showing causality, desire,
intensity, etc. The portion of the stone in the right corner side, which appears to have contained
at least three circles with a letter in each, is entirely lost; but, to judge from what remains, the
total number of these circles appears to have been 19, as also stated inside the triangle in its
middle. (Sastri read this number as 16, but I am tempted to take the unit figure as 9 because of
the curve at the top which is broader than the one below). These terminations are only of
grammatical interet and therefore need not be dealt with here in detail. (For details of these, see
Sastri’s article referred to above. He also remarked that the terminations are in agreement with
the Chāndra system of grammar whereas, according to Lele, it is in agreement with that of
Kātantra.)
Both these inscriptions are of educational interest, also showing the high interest of the public in
teaching and learning grammar. In this respect, what KK Lele writes in his note referred to above
is highly appealing, and it is given here in his own words. He says: 'they must have been
designed by some ingenious teacher and permanently engraved on the pillars as charts in modern
schools...They confirm the tradition that the mosque (on the pillars of which they are engraved)
was merely a transformation of the Sanskrit School formed by Raja Bhoja and maintained by his
successors. The old foundation too tells the same tale. It is, therefore, beyond doubt that the
mosque was not only built out of the materials of, but stands on the site of the old Schools.'
(Note: In this connection, see Bomb. Gaz. Vol. I, p. 180, where it is stated that the mosque was
an old Sanskrit School founded by Bhoja himself. Attention is also invited to the inscription on
the pedestal of the Sarasvati image, edited above (No. 14).
[unquote]
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T U E S D A Y , M A R C H 2 9 , 2 0 1 1
Saraswathi Temple Makes Way For Mosque
MOSQUE INSIDE A SARASWATHI TEMPLE
The Paramara dynasty which ruled part of the present day Madhya Pradesh from the 8th Century
A.D. onwards reached the pinnacle of its glory during the reign of King Bhojaraja during the first
half of the 11th Century A.D. He was known as the ruler of Ujjain and Dhara. This Dhara is the
same as the State of Dhar which was a part of the Central Provinces, now renamed Madhya
Pradesh. King Bhoja was probably a boy of 15years or so when he ascended the throne and
during his reign from 1010 to 1060 A.D, the country attained the highest state of eminence and
the Paramaras rose to the zenith of their power.
Bhoja Raja was not only a great and popular king but was an equally great man of letters who
authoured nearly 30 works on diverse subjects like Astronomy and Astrology, Medicine,
Sanskrit Grammar, Philosophy, Alankara, Poetry and Prose, Lexicography, Dharma Shastra,
Economics and Administration etc. In fact, he had read all the available books in Sanskrit on
Kingcraft and Administration. He was skillful in the use of 36 weapons used in those days in
warfare. His erudition was such that he could hold his own in learned debates against the greatest
scholars at that time. His versatile mind did not limit the activity only to the business of war and
writing. It was also extended towards building up a good number of educational institutions and
temples
and thus make Malwa an ideal kingdom. It is unfortunate that a good number of those
constructions built during his regime were destroyed subsequently by the first conquest of
Malwa by the Muslim rulers. Even the Bhojashala [college] founded by him in Dhar and housing
a Saraswathi temple inside, was partially destroyed and made way for a mosque.
The present day Kamal Mouli Mosque at Dhar stands at the same site which was once occupied
by the Bhojashala. It is still recognized and called as Bhojashala by the local Hindus. The
existing modern structure is Islamic in style and architecture and was constructed with the
materials got out of demolishing the Saraswathi temple which stood on the same site as the
college. When King Bhoja built the temple, he had installed an Ashtadhatu idol of Goddess
Saraswathi [bust only] which is now in the custody of the British Museum in London. Late Dr.
V. Raghavan, well-known Sanskrit scholar from Madras and President , International
Association of Sanskrit Studies, who visited the British Museum a couple of years back, has
confirmed his having seen the idol in the British Museum. Raghavan has also stated that the idol
has an inscription at the base mentioning the date of inscription as 1034 A.D which coincides
with the period of Bhojaraja’s reign. The Goddess is in the ‘Abhanga’ pose with four hands,
partially damaged. She wears a crown; her ear-rings hang down to her shoulders; she wears a
pearl necklace; a pearl-embroidered band encircles her breast and her waist is decorated all
round. She is in a meditative mood with a serene and lovely face. [The description is from a copy
of the photograph with me].
Though it was an established fact that the mosque had come up in the place originally occupied
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by the Saraswathi temple, it was difficult to prove the same with concrete evidence. The reason
was that for a thorough study of the structure of the mosque, the permission of the Mosque
authorities was necessary which was all along denied. However, after India became independent,
the Department of Epigraphy. Government of India, got the permission and a delegation was sent
to examine the structure of the mosque. After a thorough study of the structure, it could be
established that the iconoclastic Muslim rulers of Malwa in the 15th Century had destroyed the
Saraswathi temple and used the same materials to put up the present Kamal Moulvi Mosque. A
large portion of the flooring of the mosque prayer hall is paved with black marble slabs which
were used to build the temple, but with the face turned inwards. These slabs, when removed and
examined, disclosed that they contained some Sanskrit inscriptions which were hidden by their
being turned upside down.
A curious and unexpected incident revealed as to how the mosque walls were constructed. The
walls have been lined with granite slabs. At the junction of two walls, crevices have been left,
wide enough to allow a hand to go in. Some visitor to the mosque, out of sheer curiosity put his
hand inside the crevice and felt the backside of the lining. He was amazed to discover that they
contained some inscriptions. When the matter was further examined after removing a slab from
the lining, to the amazement of one and all, it was found that it contained an inscription in the
form of a wheel containing Sanskrit shlokas pertaining to grammar. The idea behind the wheel is
that the science of language---Grammar—must form part of the temple of Saraswathi, the
Goddess of speech. From a close look at the inscriptions on the wheel in the form of Shlokas,
one can Sanskrit grammar without much effort. It is because of the fact that the science of
language, the grammar, is worthy of worship, that the wheel with the grammar inscriptions was
installed in the temple. The Department of Epigraphy has now published the text of the
inscription with an English translation.
The Mosque was closed for several years and in the year 1940 Muslim devotees were allowed to
offer Namaz. In 2003 the Bhojashala Complex was also opened to the Hindus to enable them to
offer Pooja. This was done in compliance with the directive of the Archaeological Survey of
India [A.S.I.] which directed that that Hindus should be allowed to perform Pooja inside the
Complex every Tuesday from dawn to dusk with flowers and rice. Apart from Tuesdays, the
Hindus are also allowed Pooja facility on the ‘Basant Panchami Day’ once in a year. Muslims
are allowed to do Namaz every Friday for two hours from 1 P.M to 3 P.M. Tourists are allowed
entry into the historic Complex on other days by paying a nominal admission fees.
B.M.N.Murthy
Source Material:
1. Hindu Dharma by Paramacharya of Kanchi
2. The Vedas by Paramacharya of Kanchi
3. Immortal Bhoja’s Royal House by Sri. M.K. Ranganathan
4. An Anthology on Aspects of Indian Culture by Dr. V.Raghavan.
5. Cultural History of Ancient India by R.Sathianathaier, Annamalai University.
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ARTICLE NO. 472--MOSQUE INSIDE a SARASWATHI TEMPLE
Created: Friday, November 7, 2008 10:38 AM
http://murtymandala.blogspot.in/2011/03/saraswathi-temple-makes-way-for-mosque.html
On Sun, May 6, 2012 at 9:32 AM, S. Kalyanaraman <kalyan97@gmail.com> wrote:
Excerpt from Chandrasekhara Sarasvati, of Kanchi Sankara Mutt's book: Hindu
Dharma:(Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan)
I recently came across another piece of evidence like the Vengi inscription to prove how in the
old days our rulers nurtured and propagated the science of grammar.
Dhar was a state in the formal Central Provinces(now a part of Madhya Pradesh). It is the same
as Dhara which was the capital of Bhojaraja who was a great patron of arts and who made lavish
gifts to poets and artists. There is a mosque in the town of Dhar now. Once a cave was
discovered in the mosque which on examination revealed some writings in Sanskrit. But the
department of epigraphy could not carry out any investigations until some years after freedom.
Then, with the permission of the authorities of the mosque, they studied their finding.
To their amazement they saw a wheel inside with verses dealing with grammar inscribed on it in
the form of a chart. The mosque stands today where a temple to Sarasvati stood during
Bhojaraja's time. The idea behind the wheel is that the science of language (grammar)must form
part of the temple to Sarasvati, the goddess of speech---and grammar is the Vedapurusa's mouth.
They say that grammar could be learnt at a glance from this wheel. It is because the science of
language is worthy of worship that the wheel inscribed with grammar was installed in the temple.
With the blessings of Vagdevi(Sarasvati) we have obtained the wheel, though long after the
mosque was built at that site. The department of epigraphy has published the text of the
inscription with an English translation.
We learn thus that sastras like grammar were not regarded merely as of worldly interest but in
fact considered worthy of worship. That is why rulers promoted them.
http://www.kamakoti.org/newlayout/print-
it.php?content=L2hpbmR1ZGhhcm1hL3BhcnQ3L2NoYXA2Lmh0bQ==&sendpagetitle=Lingui
stic+Studies+and+Religion+from+the+Chapter+%26quot%3BVyakarana%26quot%3B%2C+in+
Hindu+Dharma
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Annex A
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/120726592/Sarasvati-pratimaa-and-temple-in-Dhar_-Madhya-Pradesh The pdf document demonstrates that the two statues of Sarasvati NOW in the British Museum belong to the temple in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. British Museum is asked to return the two statues to the temple for worship by devotees.