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DATE OF ASHRAFPUR PLATE.
125
No. 14.)
TEXT. 1 Sidhar Bhagavate Halampura-sämine apaņo ayuvadhinikah 2 Noduka-siri khetam sampada[ttām] Mahārajasa 3 Siri-Rulupurisadātasa sa ta 4 gi 8 diva 10 IN
TRANSLATION Success! To the Bhagavān, Lord of Halampūra, a field was given (by) Noduka-siri for the increase of his own life on the tenth day in the eighth fortnight of summer in the fourth (regnal) year of Mahārāja Siri-Rulupurisadāta.
No. 14.-DATE OF ASHRAFPUR PLATE.
By D. C. GANGULY, M.A., Ph. D. (LONDON).
A copper-plate inscription was discovered in 1884-1885 at the village Ashrafpur, in the Narayanganj Sub-Division, Dacca District, Bengal. Mr. Ganga Mohan Laskar published this inscription with a facsimile in the Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. I, No. VI.
The inscription is dated Samvat 13 Pausha di 6
: Mr. Laskar reads the date as
Samvat 10 3 (=13) Pausha 20 5 (-25). Dr. R. C. Majumdar agrees with Mr. Laskar in thinking that there are two symbols expressing the year-number, and two symbols expressing the day of the month. But according to him the first symbol of the year-number is 7, and the second one representa 3 or 9. He thus reads the year-number as 73 or 79, which he refers to the Harsha Era. The day of the month according to him is 20 8 (-28). If Dr. Majumdar's reading is accepted it will follow that in the same inscription both the figure-numerals and letter-numerals have been used side by side. Dr. Basakstates that the first symbol in the reading of the year-number is really a puzzling one".
Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar discusses this inscription under No. 1394 in his List of Inscriptions of Northern India. He accepts with a query mark Dr. Majumdar's reading of the year-num ber as 73, and refers it to the Harsha Era. In the foot-note he, however, remarks that "it has
[Reading rooms to be ayuvadhanike.- N. L, R.) • Canoel the length of the final vowel and read : sampadattar. . J. P. A. 8. B., Vol. XIX, pp. 375 ff.
History of North-Eastern India, P. 203.
Above, Vol. XX, Appendix, pp. 190-191. • Dr. Bhandarker does not correctly represent Dr. Majumdar's view when he says that Dr, Majumdar made the year-number of the inscription as 70 3 or 70 9. It has already been pointed out that Dr. Majumdar takes the first symbol as 7, and the second one ss 3 or 9, which according to him makes 73 or 79,