Epigraphia Indica Vol 31

SR No.: 032585
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1955
Total Pages: 506
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 30 MB

Page 208

No. 21-KAMALAPUR PLATES OF KRISHNADEVARAYA, SAKA 1447
The Late Mr. V. RANGACHARYA, MADRAS. These bopper plates," eleven in number, were received in 1905 from the Estato Guardian at Kamallpur, near Hampe, Bellary District, on a short loan by the late Mr. T. A. Gopinatha Rao. The plates were returned to the owner. I edit the insoription from its impressions availablo in the office of the Government Epigraphist for India.
The Government Epigraphist describes the plates thus : "Eleven copper plates with highlyraised rims and rounded tops, containing twenty sides. Round ring with its edges pressed close together in a hole behind the seal. The seal is hung on a oopper ring whose edges are closely pressed together as stated above. The copper ring measures 31' in diameter and is about ' thick. The soal bears in a counter-sunk surface the figure of a standing boar with up-lifted tail and facing the proper right. It is aurmounted by the sun and the moon in relief. Below the boar are some symbols. The plates measure roughly 11}' long in the middle and 84 inches on the sides ; the breadth varies from 74 to 7 inches."
The first and last of the plates, as usual, have been engraved on the inner side only, while the others on both the faces. They are numbered, like the Unamanjeri plates of Achyutaraya, on the first inscribed side of each plate with Telugu-Kannade numerals from 2 to 11. The writing has been done well and it is intact on sooount of the raised rime. But between lines 67 and 18, there is a blank space for a line and a half which can be filled up from similar epigraphs. At the end of line 448, which is the last on the second side of plate 9, there is a blank which can be covered by siz aksharas; and at the close of line 508, the last on the 10th plate where the list of donees enda, there is also & Vacant space for four letters.
The characters are Nandinågart, except the last word Sri-Virüpāksha in line 522. which is in Kannada. The sign for rough r in Mürurāyara is not distinguished from ordinary r as in other records. The middle stroke of & is occasionally missing as in Kätipats in line 171.
The following orthographical peculiarities can be noted. The visarga sign is occasionally omitted, the omission usually being before the word sri. It is rodundant in the expressions like padailreamkitan in line 29 and sūnuhs-Tirumala in line 363. A consonant after is usually doubled. Instances of the doubling of a consonant after visarga and elsewhere are also available. The anusvāra is usually used for the class nasal. Wherever there is double m the first is made into an anusvāra as in T'inmaya in line 127. The consonant t is sometimes wrongly used for d as in tanutbhava) in line 106.
There are some names of unusual interest among the donees who number as many as 308 and belong to all sects. The three Vēdas and various säkhas and gotras are represented. Though a Dvaitin, Vyasarāya, the chief donee, included scholars of every persuasion among the shareholders of the endowment. The individual shares ranged from 37 to , the exact quantity being apparently dependent on the attainments of each recipient. The total number of shares seems to have been slightly above 437. The gotras represented by the donees are: Agastya 3, Atrêya 18, Bharadvāja 51, Daivarāta 1, Gärgya 8, Gautama 10, Gürja 1, Harita 20, Jāmadagnya-Apas. tambe 1, Jāmadagnya-Vatsa 1, Kāņva 2, Kābyapa 52, Kaundinya 32, Maudgalya 3, Kausika or Visvämitra 30, Pārghasa 2, Pūtimasha 4, Rathithara 1, Sälāvata 1, Sandilya 8, Sathamarshaņa 1,
1. It is greatly to be regretted that the author passed away when the article was still in the press. * A.R. Ep., C. P. No. 13 of 1905.
. It has been prosumed so in the case of the first plate which was not received in the Government Epigruphist's office. It seems that the estampage of Plate IB Was missing in the set of imperssions received by the author. It has 27 lines of writing, which are practically identical with lines 1-24 of the Conjeeveram plates (above, Vol. XIII, pp. 126-27).--Ed.] Abovo, Vol. III, pp. 147 ff.
(139)