First inscribed ‘Sati Shila’ of Odisha deciphered

Berhampur: The first inscribed ‘Sati Shila’ (Sati stone) of Odisha and other sculptures were discovered on the premises of Shiva temple at Diaton village in Sindhekela tehsil of Bolangir district in October. Bishnu Mohan Adhikari, a young epigraphist of Paralakhemundi, made an important study on it.

Bishnu deciphered the stone after Raj Kumar Rate, a history lecturer in Khariar Autonomous College, requested him to do the job. During a field study in June 2023, Raj Kumar and his two students, Bikash Kand and Saroj Kumar Bag, discovered the inscribed Sati stone in Bolangir. They jointly visited the location to examine the scribed Sati stone which was engraved on the Sati figure erected in a sand stone.

According to Bishnu Adhikari, there are numerous lines engraved on Sati stone, but only three of them are particularly noticeable and readable. It is written in eastern Nagari characters of 10th-11th century CE used in Dakhina Kosala region of present-day Odisha.

The undated Sanskrit inscription records the self-immolation of a lady named Kanyughla Devi by performing Sati. Nataraj Nachiketa, an epigraphy scholar, assisted Bishnu Adhikari in this work. The Sanskrit verse of the inscription is clearly noticeable in the second line which is quite similar to early Somavanshi’s inscriptions of Odisha.

The upper portion of the Sati stone is adorned with the symbol of crescent moon, sun and female palm in Abhayamudra. In the middle portion, there is depiction of two human figures, a male and a female, who worship a figure that resembles a ‘sthambha/khamba’ with an oval-shaped head.

It is generally evident from Sati stone sculptures that human figures worshipped Shivalinga, but in the Diaton’s inscribed Sati stones, unique objects that resemble Stambheswari Upasana are observed, indicating the tribal people’s indigenous customs and their connection to Sati practices, said Bishnu, who has deciphered 51 inscriptions on various mediums like stone, copper plate, wood and palm leaf in Odisha and outside in the last 3 to 4 years.