Epigraphia Indica Vol 03

SR No.: 032557
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 472
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 269

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. III.
20
dharmastad-vamsyair-anyaigacha
. . . . . . . . . . .
bhmipalaih pålaniyah | Uktam cha pålanê .9 . . . . . . . . . . .
bhiḥ Sagar-adibhiḥ yasya yasya (yada]
21
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[rå
ja
No. 31.- PARLA-KIMEDI PLATES OF THE TIME OF VAJRAHASTA.
BY F. KIELHORN, PA.D., C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. These plates were first brought to Dr. Holtzsch's notice by Mr. G. V. Ramamurti of ParlaKimedi, the chief town of the Parla-Kimedi Zamindart in the Gañjam district of the Madras Presidency, and were afterwards sent to him for examination by the Collector of Ganjam. They have now been presented to the Madras Museum by Sri Padmanabha Deo, brother of the Zamîndâr of Parla-Kimedi. I edit the inscription which they contain from excellent impressions, supplied to me by Dr. Hultzsch.
These are three well preserved copper-plates, each of which measures 9" long by from 24 to 27" broad. About 11 from the proper right margin, each plate has a round hole, about 11' in diameter. The ring which passes through these holes had not been cut when the plates were received by Dr. Hultzsch. It is 31" in diameter and f" thick, and has its ends secured in a slightly oval seal which measures about 14" by 18" in diameter. This seal bears in relief a bull couchant, facing the proper left, with the moon's crescent above it, and placed on a plain pedestal which is supported by a lotus flower. Between this flower and the pedestal is the Någart legend bri-D[&]raparano.- Each of the three plates is inscribed on both sides, but the writing which we now find on the first side of the first plate, and, with the exception of four aksharas, all the writing on the second side of the third plate, are apparently later additions, and the inscription proper which these plates contain begins therefore on the second side of the first plate and ends at the top of the second side of the third plate. Of the writing within these limits the average size of the letters is about t". The characters, perhaps the most interesting feature of this inscription, present a curious mixtures of the Någari alphabet, as written in Southern India, and of several southern alphabets, properly so called. Speaking generally, of about 730 aksharas which the inscription contains, 320 are written in Nagari and 410 in southern characters; and the writer has not merely shown his familiarity with several kinds of writing, but has also displayed some skill in the arrangement of the different characters. To show this, it will suffice to draw attention to the manner in which he has written, e.g., the word paramamahesvarô in 1. 7, and the same word in 1. 9; Gargamalakulatilakó in l. 8, and Gangámalakulatilakah in l. 9; sútradhára in l. 3, and the same word in l. 28; guna and gana in lines 10 and 11; vahubhir in 1. 25, and bahubhis in lines 25-26; yasya yasya and tasya tasya in l. 26, etc. As regards the southern alphabets put under contribution by him, the majority of the characters used is found in the Chêra copper-plates of which a photo-lithograph is published in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. V. p. 139; but some of the characters employed also are peculiar to what Dr. Burnell has called the Western Châlukya alphabet of A.D. 608, the Eastern (Kalinga) Chalukya alphabets, and even the Chola-Grantha alphabet. It thus happens that, excepting the letters r in Erayamarája in l. 13),? (in Chola in 1. 10), 7 (in Sélufélagadde in l. 18, and Lomka in 1. 20), and a few others which would not be expected to occur frequently, every letter