The Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions, sometimes referred simply as the Ghosundi Inscription or the Hathibada Inscription, are the oldest Sanskrit inscriptions in the Brahmi script, and dated to the 2nd-1st century BCE. The Hathibada inscription were found near Nagari village, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, India, while the Ghosundi inscription was found in the village of Ghosundi, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Chittorgarh.
Dated to the 2nd or 1st-century BCE, the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions ("HGI") are among the oldest known Sanskrit inscriptions in Brahmi script from an early Vaishnavism tradition of ancient India.[1][2][3][4]
The HGI were found as incomplete fragments in three different locations. One fragment was discovered inside an ancient water well in Ghosundi, another at the boundary wall between Ghosundi and Bassi, and the third on a stone slab in the inner wall of Hathibada. They may have been displaced during the Mughal emperor Akbar's siege of Chittorgarh. He camped at Nagari and built some facilities by breaking and reusing old structures, a legacy that gave the location its name "Hathi-bada" or "elephant stable". The fragment discovered in the Hathibada wall has the same style, Brahmi script and partly same text as the Ghosundi fragment, thereby suggesting a link. The three fragments are often studied together.[5][6]
The HGI are significant not only for their antiquity but as a source of information about ancient Indian scripts, society, history and religious beliefs.[5] The inscriptions seem to provide evidence for an early reverence of Vrishni hero-deities Samkarshana and Vฤsudeva (later known as Balarama and Krishna), the existence of a stone temple dedicated to them in 1st-century BCE, the puja tradition, and a king who had completed the Vedic Asvamedha sacrifice.[1][7][8] The inscription seems to associate Samkarshana and Vฤsudeva with Narayana (Vishnu), possibly a step in their later incorporation as avatars into the Vaishnavite pantheon.[9]
Taken together with evidence such as the Besnagar inscription found on the Heliodorus pillar, the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions suggest that devotional Bhagavatism was developing in ancient India between the 2nd and 1st century BCE.[7][10] The HGI are not the oldest known inscriptions; others such as the Ayodhya Inscription and Nanaghat Cave Inscription are generally accepted as old or older.[2][11]
Bhandarkar โ an archaeologist, translates it as,
(This) enclosing wall round the stone (object) of worship, called Narayana-vatika (Compound) for the divinities Samkarshana-Vฤsudeva who are unconquered and are lords of all (has been caused to be made) by (the king) Sarvatata, a Gajayana and son of (a lady) of the Parasaragotra, who is a devotee of Bhagavat (Vishnu or Samkarshana/Vฤsudeva) and has performed an Asvamedha sacrifice.
Harry Falk โ an Indologist, states that the king does not mention his father by name, only his mother, and in his dedicatory verse does not call himself raja (king).[13] The king belonged to a Brahmin dynasty of Kanvas, that followed the Sungas dynasty. He translates one of the fragments as:
adherent of the Lord (bhagavat), belonging to the gotra of the Gajayanas, son of a mother from the Parasara gotra, performer of an Asvamedha.[13]
Benjamรญn Preciado-Solรญs โ an Indologist, translates it as:
[This] stone enclosure, called the Narayana Vatika, for the worship of Bhagavan Samkarsana and Bhagavan Vฤsudeva, the invincible lords of all, [was erected] by [the Bhaga]vata king of the line of Gaja, Sarvatata, the victorious, who has performed an asvamedha, son of a Parasari.[14]
Within the inscriptions, a local king of Madhyamika (modern day Nagari, Rajasthan) named Sarvatata is mentioned.[15][16][17][18] According to inscriptions, he performed the Ashvamedhayajna and also constructed a Narayana-vatika (vatika may mean "garden") compound dedicated to Saแนkarแนฃaแนa and Vฤsudeva.[19] The inscription also names Gajayana as Sarvatata's gotra or dynasty name, though this also is unclear. The same inscription names his mother's gotra as Parasari or Parฤลara.[20][21]
