Epigraphia Indica Vol 09

SR No.: 032563
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch, Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1907
Total Pages: 498
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 28 MB

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. IX.
find them. He then recorded that as the published version was not sufficiently reliable to be reproduced he was unable to include this inscription in his volume.l
The fact appears to be that the plates were never presented to the Society. They were simply lent by and finally returned to the owner, the Sárangarh family, whose State was in those days included in the Sambalpur district, now transferred to Bengal.
These facts combined with the absence of a facsimile copy of the record in Dr. Rajendra Lal's notice, together with certain misreadings of the text, afford, I venture to think, sufficient reasons for re-editing this inscription.
There are two copper plates, each measuring 61' 31', and the weight of the two together is 12 oze. 5 drs. About l' from the proper right margin each plate has a hole, roundish on one side and squarish on the other, the diameter being about it. These were intended for stringing the plates on the ring, the loss of which has deprived our inscription of its last portion, which must have been engraved on a third plate. The lost plate must have contained about 5 or 6 lines which can almost be restored from other inscriptions of the same king, and of Maha-Jayaraja, all of which are composed in exactly the same wordings, the names of villages granted and the donees being of course different. In our inscription only, some of the imprecatory verses are lost as also the date at the end, which of course cannot be restored. Jadging from other inscriptions of this king the date must have been in regnal years, so that it could not have been of much help beyond fixing the priority or otherwise of our inscription as compared with others.
The plates recovered are in an excellent state of preservation. One is inscribed on one side and the other on both in characters of the box-beaded variety of the Central Indian alphabet. The letters are very neatly and well formed, their average size being about #". The accompanying plato gives a facsimile copy, from impressions kindly taken for me by Mr. T. G. Green, Saperintendent of the Government Press, Nagpur.
The language is Sanskrit prose except the usual imprecatory verses, here attributed to Vyása. As regards orthography, there is very little to be noticed beyond what has been already done by Dr. Konow with regard to another inscription of the same king recently found at Khariar. As the composition is almost identical, the peonliarities are common to both. The upadhmdniya ooours in line 3 in -pradas-parama-. The same sign, vis. 2 dots, has been used for visarga and a pause. Ordinarily mátrás for w, ri and li alone are attached at the foot of lettert, but in this inscription there is a curious example in line 12 where the sign for 8 in anumodita) is partly exhibited by a top and partly by a foot stroke, all other 8's being represented by the top strokes for d and d; compare vikkramöpanata. of line 1.
The inscription was issued from the town of Sarabhapura and records the grant of a village named Chullaņdaraka situated in the bhukti or subdivision of Tuņdaraka by the Queen and the royal family of Raja Mah-Sudeva and assented to by him, to a number of learned priests, vie. Bhaskaras vámi, PrabhA karasvami, Barbbarisvämi, Botasvåmi, Dattasvimi, Vishusvåmi, Phalgusvåmi, Svåmikirttisyâmi and Sankarasvámi, all of the Kausika gôtra. One of these, Vishnasvâmi, is apparently identical with the donee of the Khariar plates. He also belonged to the Kausika gôtra and received a village in the Khariar zamindari from this king. Neither these two nor the third charter of this king, which was obtained from Raipur, throw any light on the dynasty to which he belonged or on
Gupta Inscriptions, p. 198, footnote 2.
* Eighteen lines of our inscription remains the Khariar plates have 23 lines, the Arang plates of Jayarkja 24, and the Raipur plates of Buddva 28, but these last ones are much smaller in size than the others. Our plates are slightly bigger than all the three sets.
* See above, pp. 170 and tt.