Badoh-Pathari Saptamatrka Inscription Composite Photo

This is a high-resolution digital composite of numerous detail photographs of the extremely weathered inscription accompanying the Saptamātṛkā panel on Gyānnāth Hill in Badoh-Pathari (Vidisha District, Madhya Pradesh, India). The photos were taken in January 2017; the digital compositing and enhancement was carried in the months between January and August 2017. The enhancement involved geometric transformation and individual cutting of the best-lit areas from each original photograph, as well as global exposure and sharpness alterations. No details in the image have been altered by hand.

The inscription was reported by M. B. Garde (Annual Report of the Archaeological Department, Gwalior State for Samvat 1980, Year 1923-24, page 12) who mentioned that the name of viṣayeśvara Mahārāja Jayatsena could be read in it along with a partial date, the 13th of a bright half-month. The area has recently been thoroughly surveyed by Anne Casile, the survey reported in 'Changing Religious Landscapes in Gupta Times: Archaeological Evidence from the Area of Baḍoh-Paṭhāri in Central India', South Asian Studies 30 (2014), 245-268.

Dániel Balogh is currently working on this inscription and planning to present the findings at the World Sanskrit Conference in 2018. Zenodo users who study this image are requested to share their insights with him, and not to publish a reading of the inscription before Balogh's publication of his reading.