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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
tte cause of existence, genesis and destruction, and who resides on the summit of the Mahendra mountain ;-he, a moon in the sky, Damely, the noble Ganga race; possessing the over-lordship of the entire Svētaka (country), won by the strength of his own arms; endeared to all his Vassals by the pre-eminence of his three-fold powers; & great devotee of Mahēśvara (Siva); and meditator upon the feet of his father and mother; being well, commands from the victorious rosidence of Svētaka the for the time being administrative officers together with the accountants in the H&manibhöga vishaya (province) thus :
(LI. 15 to 22.) Be it well known to you that the village) Vața-grāma, belonging to this province, within the boundaries of the modakal tree and the peepal tree (Ficus religiosa) on the east and west and of the tank on the south, is given to Govindasarman, a Brāhmaṇa of the Bhāradvāja gotra and of the Vājassnēya charana, for the increase of the merit of my father, mother and self.
(LI. 22 to 25.) And I beseech future kings (thus): "O kings! Have no doubt of reward on the ground that it is another's gift. The maintenance of another's grants has a far greater reward than one's own gift."
(L. 25.) Incised by Padmachandra.
No. 15. --BARRACKPUR GRANT OF VIJAYASENA : THE 32ND YEAR.
BY R. D. BANERJI, M.A. The copper-plate on which the subjoined inscription is incised was discovered seven or eight years ago in a small village near the cantonment of Barrackpur, in the 24-Parganas District of Bengal, by Mr. G. A. Schumacher, an Assistant employed by Messrs. Bird & Co., of Calcutta. Mr. Schumacher seems to have found the plate in the possession of some villagers, from whom he purchased it for its weight in copper. This information was obtained for me from Mr. Schumacher by Mr. Nogendra Nath Sen Gupta, of Messrs. Sinclair, Murray & Co., of Calcutta. The plate is at present in Mr. Schumacher's possession.
The late Mr. V. Venkayya obtained a loan of the plate from Mr. Schumacher in 1910. Mr. M. B. Garde, then Research Scholar in the Archeological Department, prepared a transcript of this record. The original plate was sent to Dr. D. B. Spooner, Superintendent, Archeological Survey, Eastern Circle, in whose office it was photographed. As Mr. Garde could not find time to edit this record, the work was made over by Dr. Spooner in Novembor 1915 to me. I had examined the original plate in 1907 or 1908, when a Bengali gentleman brought it to the Indian Museum for decipherment, and again in 1910, when the late Mr. Venkayya obtained it from Mr. Schumacher. But in 1915 I found that this original plate had been sent to England, and some ink impressions of it, taken by Dr. Spooner's men, could not be traced either in the office of the Government Epigraphist for India or in that of the Superintendent, Archeological Survey, Eastorn Circle. I had to rely on two pencil rubbings, sent to Dr. Spooner in October 1911, and two indifferent negatives. The accompanying plates have been prepared from two enlargements from these negatives, prepared by Babu Sib Chandra Mondal of the Indian Museum.
The record is incised on a single plate of copper, to the top of which is attached the royal seal. As is the case in all Sõna grants, tho seal consists of a ten-armed figure of siva, called in the Edilpur grant of Kosava-sõna! Sadāsita-mudra, embossed in relief; there is no legend
1 Mödai corresponds to the Sanskrit mödaki; but there is no tree of that name in Sanskrit. Perhaps the Telugn mõduga, mõdugu or mödwon, which is the tree called Bastard Teak (Butea Frondora), was mount here.
• Journ. and Proc., Bengal As. Soc., Vol. X, p. 97.