LOGO
  • Home
  • About
  • Inscriptions
  • Contact Us

Logo

Mapping, Documenting & Conserving the Inscriptions of India

©2025 (Site Name). All rights reserved.

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About
  • Inscriptions
  • Contact Us

Policies

  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policies
  • Plagiarism Policy

Join Us

  • Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated.
  • send icon
details-page-bnr

Ganj Stone Inscription of Vyāghradeva

Record of a dedicatory construction for religious merits
Table of Contents
›Introduction
›Translation
›Bibliography & Research
Introduction

The Ganj stone inscription, discovered in 1919, is an epigraphic record of the subordinate ruler Vyāghradeva. The text is engraved on a detached stone slab found near the Maluha-tongri hill in the Ajayagadh region of Madhya Pradesh.  Executed in the box-headed variety of the Brāhmī script, the text is composed in Sanskrit prose. The well-preserved record centers around a wheel motif and belongs to the reign of the Vākāṭaka king Pṛthivīṣeṇa II.

The brief text documents a pious dedication executed by Vyāghradeva for the religious benefit of his mother and father. He explicitly acknowledges his political subservience by declaring that he meditates on the feet of the Vākāṭaka mahārāja Pṛthivīṣeṇa. The exact nature of the dedication is not explicitly specified within the text, but its physical proximity to a ruined stone structure across a local stream suggests it records the construction of a dam. 

Translation

Vyāghradeva, who meditates on the feet of the illustrious Pṛthiviseṇa II, the Mahārāja of the Vākāṭakas, has made this for the religious merit on his mother and father.

Dynasty:Ucchakalpa
Ruler:Vyāghradeva
Date:c. 470 to 490 CE
Donor:Vyāghradeva
Language:Sanskrit
Script:Box-headed Brāhmī
Nature of grant:Religious endowment
Purpose:To record a construction done by the king for the religious merit of his parents
Provenance of inscription:Maluhatongi hill near Ganj, Madhya Pradesh
Type of Inscription:Stone inscription
Source:
CII Vol 5, pp 22

Bibliography & Research

  • Mirashi, V. V. (Ed.). (1963). Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum: The Inscriptions of the Vākāṭakas (Vol. V). Archaeological Survey of India.
  • Sukthankar, V. S. (1923). No 4. A Vakataka Inscription from Ganj. Epigraphia Indica, XVII, 12-14.
More Vākāṭakas Dynasty Inscriptions
›

Ajaṇṭā Cave Inscription of Varāhadeva

Dedication of an ornate Buddhist cave by the minister of Vākāṭaka king Hariṣeṇa

›

An unfinished Durg Plate

An unfinished copper-plate charter issued from Padmapurā

›

Bamhanī Plates of Bharatabala

A charter mentioning land donation to earn religious merit.

›

Belorā Plates (Set A and B) of Pravarasena II

A two-set record mentioning the donation of land and its renewal with added territories

›

Bālāghāṭ Plates of Pṛthivīṣeṇa II

An unfinished copper charter issue by Vākāṭaka ruler Pṛthivīṣeṇa II from Vembāra

›

Bāsim Plates of Vindhyaśakti II

A grant of a village to Ātharvaṇa brāhmaṇas with revenue exemptions.

See more
right-arrow