page_title: Mandsaur stone inscription of Yashodharman-Vishnuvardhana
section_title: Fleet's translation of the inscription
hierarchical_section_title: Mandsaur stone inscription of Yashodharman-Vishnuvardhana / Description / Fleet's translation of the inscription
caption_attribution_description: English: Sri Yashodharman
context_page_description: The Mandsaur stone inscription of Yashodharman-Vishnuvardhana, is a Sanskrit inscription in the Gupta script dated to about 532 CE, on a slate stone measuring about 2 feet broad, 1.5 feet high and 2.5 inches thick found in the Malwa region of India, now a large part of the southwestern Madhya Pradesh. On the back are engraved a sign of sun and moon, as well as two horsemen. The inscription opens with the sign for siddham, is entirely in verse of various meters, and is signed at the end with the name of the engraver. The script says Fleet belongs to the "northern class of alphabet", and opens with invocations to Hindu god Shiva.
context_section_description: The inscription was translated by John Faithfull Fleet in Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum: Inscriptions of the Early Guptas in 1888 (line numbers and paragraph titles are part of the original text):
  
  (Line 1.) "Perfection has been attained! Victorious is he, (the god) Pinakin, the lord of [all] the worlds,— in whose songs, hummed with smiles, the splendor of (his) teeth, like the lustre of lightning sparkling in the night, envelops and brings into full view all this Universe! May he, (the god) Sambhu, confer many auspicious gifts upon you,— employed by whom in the rites of {effecting the} continuance and the destruction and the production of {all} things that exist, (the god) Svayambhu, is obedient to (his) commands, for the sake of the maintenance of (all) the worlds ; and by whom, leading (him) to dignity in the world, he has been brought to the condition of being the father (of the universe )! May the serpent of the creator of existence accomplish the allayment of your distress,— (that serpent) the multitude of whose foreheads, bowed down afar by the pressure of the heavy weight of the jewels in (their) hoods, obscures the radiance of the moon (on his master's forehead) ; (and) who (with the folds of his body) binds securely on [his master’s] head the chaplet of bones which is full of holes (for stringing them)! May the creator of waters, which was dug out by the sixty thousand sons of Sagara, (and) which possesses a lustre equal to (that of) the sky, preserve for a long time the glories of this best of wells!
   
  
  
  (Line 4.)— Now, victorious is that tribal ruler, having the name of the glorious Yashodharman, who, having plunged into the army of (his) enemies, as if into a grove of  thornapple-trees, (and) having bent down the reputation of heroes like the tender creepers of trees, effects the adornment of (his) body with the fragments of young sprouts which are the wounds (inflicted on him).
   
  
  (L. 5.)— And, again, victorious over the earth is this same king of men, the glorious Vishnuvardhana, the conqueror in war; by whom his own famous lineage, which has the Aulikara-crest, has been brought to a state of dignity that is ever higher and higher. By him, having brought into subjection, with peaceful overtures and by war, the mighty kings of the east and many (kings) of the north, this second name of "Supreme King of Kings and Supreme Lord", pleasing in the world (but) difficult of attainment, is carried on high.
  
  
  Through him, having conquered the earth with (his own) arm, many countries, — in which the sun is obscured by the smoke, resembling dense dark-blue clouds, of the oblations of the sacrifices; (and) which abound with thick and-thriving crops through (the god) Maghavan pouring cloudfuls of rain upon (their) boundaries; (and) in which the ends of the fresh sprouts of the mango-trees in the parks are eagerly plucked in joy by the hands of wanton women,— enjoy the happiness of being possessed of a good king.
  
  
  Through the dust, grey like the hide of an ass,— stirred up by his armies, which have (their) banners lifted on high; (and) which have the lodhra-trees tossed about in all directions by the tusks of (their) infuriated elephants; (and) which have the crevices of the Vindhya mountains made resonant with the noise of (their) journeying through the forests, — the orb of the sun appears dark (and) dull-rayed, as if it were an eye in a peacock's tail reversed.
  
  
  (L. 9.) — The servant of the kings who founded the family of that lord, was Shashthidatta,— the fame of whose religious merit was known far and wide through the protection of their feet; who by his resoluteness conquered the six enemies (of religion) (and) who was indeed very excellent. As the torrent, flowing high and low, of (the river) Ganga (spreads abroad) from (the mountain) Himavat, (and) the extensive mass of the waters of (the river) Reva from the moon,— (so) from him, whose dignity was manifested, there spreads a pure race of Naigamas most worthy to be sought in fellowship.
  
  
  (L. 11.)— Of him, from a wife of good family, there was born a son, rese
caption: The name Gupta allahabad shrii.jpgGupta allahabad y.svgGupta allahabad sho.jpgGupta allahabad dh.svgGupta allahabad rmm.jpg Śrī Ya-śo-dha-rmma ("Lord Yashodharman") in Gupta script in Line 4 of the Mandsaur stone inscription of Yashodharman-Vishnuvardhana.[4]
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