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224
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. III.
23 s=cha [ll"] Asy=pama(ri) na kênachid=vådh& karaply& [1] yaḥ kara(r)ti 58
' pañcha-mah&påta ka-samyu24 kto bhavati [ll] Vy[4]sên=&py-aktaṁ || Svar dattår para-dattar vå yo harêta
Vasundhara[ml] 258 shashtir=vvarsha-sahasråņi vishthayam jâyatd krimiḥ [11] Va(ba)hubhir=vvasudha
datta ba26 hubhig=ch=&napálità [lo] yasya yasya yad bhumis-tasya tasya tada phalam [llo] 27 Ajñaptir-asya dharmasya Kayastha-kala-bhůshanaḥ [M] mantra: Daraparajasya
Vachchhapayyo ma28 håmatiḥ [ll"] Likhitam mahasandhivigrahi-Drônicháryy[@]ņa [*] atkirpņam
stradhára-Namkañchye
me
Third Plate; Second Side.
29 maohariņš [ll"]
No. 32.- ALAMPUNDI PLATE OF VIRUPAKSHA;
SAKA-SAMVAT 1305.
Br V. Venkarya, M.A. A tentative English translation of the subjoined inscription was published in 1878 in the Manual of the South Arcot District (page 2, note), and Mr. Sewell has drawn attention to this translation in his Lists of Antiquities, Volume I. page 207. The original consists of a single plate which is now in the possession of Narayana Sastri of Alampundi, a village in the Señji (Gingee) division of the Tiņdivanam tåluků of the South Arcot district, and was obtained by Dr. Hultzsch on loan through the kind offices of the Collector of the district. The plate measures abont 1l1 in height and 64' in breadth, and is rounded at the top. Both sides of the plate have raised rims to protect the writing, which is in fairly good preservation. There is a hole at the top of the plate; but the ring for which the hole was made, and the seal which that ring may have carried, are not forthcoming.
With the exception of the colophon Sri-Harihara, which is in Kanarose characters, the alphabet employed in the inscription is Grantha, which differs very little from its modern form. As in other Grantha and Tamil inscriptions,- if a group consisting of a consonant and of the secondary form of a vowel stands at the end of a line, the second element of the group is occasionally placed at the beginning of the next following line if no room is left for it at the end of the preceding line. Thus, of dê of dévyám (1. 9 f.), the & is at the end of line 9 and the d at the beginning of line 10. Similar instances occur in sau (1.12 f.) and bhyó (1. 20 f.). Again, of mayd (1.21 f.) the y is found in line 21 and the & in the following line. Another instance of the same peculiarity occurs in kkó (1. 15 f.). Sach & separation is impossible in the Telugu or Kanarese alphabets, because the secondary form of a vowel is there attached to the consonant itself and constitutes along with it a single complex symbol. In the Grantha, Tamil, and Malayalam alphabets, the secondary vowel forms are distinct symbols which are written either before or after the consonant. Irregularities similar to those pointed out above are thus
1 Metro: sloka (Anushtabh); and of the following verses. * Read shashi varsha..
Read mantri. • Originally rdtradhdri. was engraved, but the sign for i has been struck out.
No 85 on the Tindivasam Taluk Map.