Epigraphia Indica Vol 27

SR No.: 032581
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1947
Total Pages: 490
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

Page 438

No. 53) PETTASARA GRANT OF NETTABHANJA
337 No. 53-PETTASARA GRANT OF NETTABHANJA
(1 Plate)
C. C. DAS GUPTA, CALCUTTA This set of copper plates was recently acquired for the Orissa Museum at Bhubanesvar by its Curator. I edit it with the kind permission of the Government Epigraphist for India who supplied me with an excellent set of impressions."
The set consists of three copper-plates, each measuring 7.7" x 4.5". The plates are strung together on a ring with a seal which is worn out. Together with the ring, they weigh 138 tolas, the ring alone weighing 22 tolas. The first and third plates are engraved on one side only, the second on both sides. The inscription consists of 35 lines, the first plate containing 8 lines and the other three inscribed sides of the plates 9 lines each.
The characters used in this inscription belong to the East Indian Nagari type and may be assigned to the 9th or 10th century A.C. The language of the record is Sanskrit and the composition is in verse and prose. As regards palaeography, language and orthography, the inscription closely resembles other Orissan records of the period in question.
Nēttabhañja mentioned in this inscription is the same as Nētsibhañja noted in three Ganjam grants on account of the following reasons. First, the script used in all these four inscriptions is exactly the same. Secondly, the drafts of all these records are of the same nature. Thirdly, all were issued from Vañjulvaka. Fourthly, the officers named in this inscription as serving Nēţtabhañja are found mentioned only in the inscriptions of Nētribhañja as serving that ruler. For example, the officers Kakkāka, Durgadēva and Vāchchika mentioned in this inscription are also known from other inscriptions of Nētribhañja'. Lastly, the ruler Nettabhañja of this record and Nētsibhañja of the other inscriptions have the common secondary name Kalyānakala sa. These inscriptions together offer the following genealogical table :
Silabhañja Satrubhañja Ranabhanja
Nētřibhañja There is another ruler with almost the same name, i.e., Nēttabhañjas; but there is no doubt that he is an altogether different monarch though belonging to the same dynasty. There are also two other rulers named Nēttabhañja I and Nēttabhañja II who belonged to an altogether different dynasty as their genealogy is entirely different.?
1 [This inscription was published with plates by Pandit Satyanarayan Rajaguru in the Journal of the Kalinga Historical Research Society, Vol. I, No. 4 (March 1947), pp. 285 ff., under the title " The Kshatrivarapur Copperplate Grant of Nettabhañjadeva alias Kalyāņakalasa (Samvat 59)." According to him, the plates were discovered by the villagers of Kshatrivarapur in the Ghumsar Subdivision of the Ganjam District, Orissa, while digging the earth for the construction of a school building and he received them for examination in Ootober 1946 through Mr. Banchhanidhi Patnaik of Gobara and Mr. Nabakisor Das of Cuttack.-D.C.S.]
• Bhandarkar, List, Nos. 1497-99. [The correct reading of the name in all the three cases is Neffabhanja D.C.S.)
• Ibid., Nos. 1497-98.
Ibid., Nos. 1497-99.
Ibid., No. 1502. . This point was discussed by me in A BORI, Vol. XII, p. 240. 7 Bhandarkar, List, No. 2057.