The Tumen inscription of Kumāragupta is an epigraphic record documenting the construction of a temple in the time of the Gupta king Kumaragupta I. It is dated year 116 in the Gupta era (circa 436 CE).
Location Tumen (तूमैन, Tumen), also Tumen or Tumbavana (तुंबवन), is a village in Ashoknagar District, Madhya Pradesh, India. The inscription is currently located in the Archaeological Museum, Gwalior.
Publication The inscription was first published by M. B. Garde in 1918-19. It was subsequently listed by Bhandarkar and M. Willis.GAR (VS 1975/AD 1918-19): number 65; Bhandarkar, EI 19-23 (1927-36): appendix, number 1269; Michael D. Willis, Inscriptions of Gopakṣetra (London, 1996). An edition with translation was published in Epigraphia Indica in 1941-42.EI 26 (1941-42): 115. A second edition appeared in the revised edition of Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, volume 3, published in 1981.CII 3 (1981): 276.
Description and Contents The inscription is in the Sanskrit language, engraved in six lines. The prime historical importance of the inscription is its mention of Ghaṭotkacagupta.
Metrics The metrics are not recorded in the publications consulted.
Text 1) [ri]ryyasya lokattrayānte | caraṇakamalaṃ(la)mattyaṃ(cchaṃ) vandye(ndya)te siddhasaṅdaiḥ(ṅdhaiḥ) [||*] rājā śrī-Candraguptas-tad-anujayate yo medinīṃ sāgarāntām
2) - śrī-Candraguptasya mahendrakalpaḥ kumāraguptas-tanayas-sa[magrām] [|*] rarakṣa sādhvīm iva dharmmapatnīm vairyyāgrahastairupa guhyam bhūmim [||*]In the phrase: kumāraguptas ... rarakṣa sādhvīm iva dharmmapatnīm vīryyāgrahastair upaguhya bhūmim, the compound agrahasta, is not ‘arms’ as Bhandarkar translates (CII 3 (1981), p. 279). It is used by Varāhamihira, Bṛhatsaṃhitā (42: 60 and 57: 26) and is explained in Mammaṭabhaṭṭa, Kāvyaprakāśā, ullāsa 2. See Michael Willis, The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual (Cambridge, 2009), chapter 3, note 170.
3) [ - - ] gauraḥ kṣityambare guṇasamūhamayūkhajālo nāmnoditassa tu ghaṭotkacaguptacandraḥ [||*] sa pūrvvajānāṃ sthira-satva-kīrttir-bhujārjjitāṃ kīrttim=abhiprapadya ||(|)
4) [guptānvayā*]nāṃ vasudheśvarāṇā[m] samāśate ṣoḍaśavarṣayukte | kumāragupte nṛpatau pri(pṛ)thivyām virājā(ja)māne śaradīva sūryye || vaṭodake sādhujanādhivāse
5) taśśrīdeva ityūrjjitanāmadheyaḥ [||*] tadagrajobhūddharidevasaṃjгastatoёanujo yastu sa dhanyadevaḥ [|*] tatovaro yaśca sa bhadradevastata[‘]kanīyānapi saṅha(ṅgha)deva[ḥ ||*]
6) - nasaktacittāḥ samāna[vṛ]ttākṛti[bhāvadhīrāḥ kṛtā]layā[stu]mbavane ba[bhū]vuḥ || akārayaṃste giri[śri](śṛ)ṅgatuṅgaṃ śaśi[prabhaṃ] devani[ketanaṃ-|]
Translation
See also Indian inscriptions
Notes
External links British Museum Research Project : Politics, Ritual and Religion : Epigraphic Findspots Online version of the Sanskrit text