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298
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
Maharashtri Prakrit. Excepting the introductory om om namah Sivaya and the words kim-páparena in line 13, lines 1-32, which mainly contain the genealogy of the grantor, are in verse; the rest of the inscription, being the formal part of the grant, is in prose, but includes six of the usual benedictive and imprecatory verses, in lines 44-48.-As regards orthography, 6 is throughout denoted by the sign for o; the dental sibilant is used instead of the palatal everywhere, except in the word éri which ordinarily is spelt correctly; ksh is employed instead of khy in sauksha, line 7, and kshátan, line 27, and ky instead of kesh in kaukyeyako, line 26; j and y are confounded, e.g., in parjjanaishit (for paryyaņaishit), line 10, dur jjasah (for duryyasah), line 27, and anuya (for anuja), in lines 16 and 22; and the dental nasal is employed instead of the lingual in ánrinya, line 8, and kárunya, line 20, and instead of anusrára in vansa, in lines 6 and 45. In addition to these, the inscription contains many other errors, due to the carelessness of the writer or engraver. Thus, the signs of anustára and visarga and whole aksharas (or even groups of aksharas) are often omitted, short vowels are used instead of long ones, and medial e and o are employed instead of ai and au. Such and other mistakes, too numerous to enumerate here, occur especially frequently in the bottom lines of the first plate: and they have sometimes rendered it impossible for me to restore the correct wording of the original text. Nevertheless, there is no doubt whatever as to what historical facts are intended to be recorded in the poetical part of the inscription; and I am particularly glad to be able to state that the date of this document is so clearly written and engraved as to remove any doubts which may have been entertained in this regard.
The inscription is one of the Paramabhattáraka Mahárájú dhiraja and Paramešvara, the devout worshipper of Maheśvara (Siva), the lord over Trikalinga, the illustrious Karnadeva, who meditated on the feet of the Paramabhat!áraka Mahárájádhiraja and Paramešvara, the illustrious Vâmadeva (lines 33-34). The epithets which are here officially applied to Karnadeva are the same which are used with reference to Narasimhadeva in the Lal-Pahảd rock inscription of the Chedi year 909, to his younger brother Jayasimhadeva in the Rewah copper-plate grant of the Maháránaka Kirtivarman of the Chedi year 926, and to Jayasimbadeva's son Vijayasimhadeva in the Kumbhi copperplate grant of the Chedi year 932, and which apparently were applied also to Karnadeva's immediate successor Yaśaḥkarņadeva in the Jabalpur copper-plate grant ' [of the Chedi year 874). As regards the meaning of these epithets, I have already had occasion to state that I agree with Sir A. Cunningham in considering the term Trikalinga to denote, or to be an older name of, the province of Telingana; but that I am unable to explain the exact significance of the phrase "who meditated on the feet of the Paramabhattáraka Mahárájádhiraja and Parameśvara, the illustrious Vamadeva,' which we thus find employed with reference to five different kings. In accordance with ordinary usage, that phrase ought to mean that Vámadeva was one of the ancestors of the princes who are said to have meditated on his feet; but none of the inscriptions of the Chedi
* See Indian Antiquary, vol. XVIII, page 212. The inscriptions of Narasimhadeva, Jayasimbadeva and Vijayasiribadeva add nijabksjoparjit-afvapati-gajapati narapati-rajatrayadhipati, after Trikalingadkipati.
See ib., vol. XVII, page 226. . See Journal As. Soc. Bengal, vol. XXXI, page 119.
+ See above, page 5; ib., page 7, line 16, the translation should have been: And this . . .. who [meditates on the feet of the Paramabhaftáraka, Maharajadhiraja, and Paramesuara, the illustrious Vâmadeva . . . ..
See Indian Antiquary. vol. XVII, page 225.
