The Bargaon stone inscription of Śabara is incised on a fragmentary stone slab discovered amidst temple ruins north of Bargaon in Madhya Pradesh. Briefly noticed by Hiralal and later edited in Epigraphia Indica, the epigraph consists of five lines composed in Sanskrit language and engraved in the Nāgarī script.
The inscription opens with an invocation to auspiciousness and records a pious endowment made by Śiva, the balādhikṛta (army commander) of the vassal chief Śabara. The executive object of the epigraph is to register the donation of a granary and a specific revenue cess levied at the threshing floor. This collective gift was assigned to an unnamed ascetic residing in a temple located within an entire settlement of Brāhmaṇas. The religious endowment was institutionalised for the spiritual benefit of the deity Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa. The text concludes with a standard imprecation, decreeing that any individual who violates or deviates from this arrangement shall incur the sin of killing a Brāhmaṇa.
1. siddhiḥ | om namaḥ śrīśabarasatkabalādhikṛtaśiva….
2. abhyarthitasamastabrahmastambasthānatapodhanasama …………
3. śrīśaṅkaranārāyaṇārthe khalabhikṣāpradattā kṛdaram……………..
4. kam atortheyovyabhicarati tasya śapathoyam brahmahatyā pātakena samyukto bhaviṣyati
5. syeti ||
Lines 1 to 3
Success! Om! Adoration! [Śiva], the balādhikṛta of the illustrious Śabara ...... has given the cess at the threshing floor and a granary for the holy Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa to......the ascetic residing in the temple (which is the only one) in the entire settlement of the Brāhmaṇas venerated by......
Lines 4 to 5
Whoever will deviate from this, for him is this our imprecation that he shall incur the sin of killing a Brāhmaṇa......
| Dynasty: | Kalacuri |
| Ruler: | Śabara |
| Date: | c. 10th century CE |
| Donor: | Balādhikṛita Śiva |
| Donee: | The asetic and the temple of god Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa |
| Language: | Sanskrit |
| Script: | Nāgarī |
| Religion: | Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism |
| Deities: | Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa |
| Nature of grant: | Religious endownment and Land donation |
| Purpose: | To support an ascetic residing at the temple settlement and for the maintenance of the god Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa |
| Provenance of inscription: | Bargaon, Madhya Pradesh |
| Type of Inscription: | Stone Inscription |
| Source: |
Bibliography & Research
Hiralal, R. B. (1916). Inscriptions in the Central Provinces and Berar. Government Printing.
- Mirashi, V. V. (1939). Bargaon Temple Inscription of Sabara. Epigraphia Indica, XXV, 278-281.
- Mirashi, V. V. (Ed.). (1955). Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Inscriptions of the Kalachuri Chedi Era. In (Vol. Vol 4 (Part 1), lxvii-cviii and 195-198. Archaeological Survey of India.
