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[VOL. III,
This is a single plate which measures about 10" broad by 5" high, and is engraved on one side only. It contains ten lines of writing written across the breadth of it, and another line, which merely contains the name of the donor, on the proper right margin. The writing is in a perfect state of preservation. The size of the letters in the body of the inscription is between rs" and ", and of those on the right margin, about. The characters are Nagari, as written in Orissa or neighbouring parts of Eastern India probably in the 11th or 12th century A.D. The language is very incorrect Sanskrit prose, greatly influenced by the Prakrit or vernacular of the author. In some places the case terminations are altogether omitted; in others we have wrong cases, false genders, and inappropriate or incorrect verbal derivatives. The influence of the Prakrit is shown by the substitution of single for conjunct consonants (as in Vigahapala for Vigraḥapdla, 11. 2 and 7, sadathitya for sadisthitya, 11. 4 and 5, and sahasta for svahasta, 1. 5), the use of the lingual for the dental nasal (as in na for na, 1. 3, and kuttumvikanám for kánám, 1. 7), the substitution of s for and sh (as in sésam for tésham, 1. 8), and the omission of medial y and final consonants (as in -vidhêdnám for -vidhéyánám, 1. 9, and kasyachi for chit, 11. 5 and 7).1 That the author's vernacular was closely related to, or was a kind of, Magadhi Prâkrit, appears to be particularly proved by the occurrence of the word ostá for avastha in line 5; by the use of the conjuncts sp, sm and sy instead of shp, shm and shy in chatuspada, 1. 6, tusmå (for yushmat-), 1. 4, and nirvvahisyati, 1. 9; and (if my interpretation of the text be right) by the Nom. sing. masc. ye in line 3. In respect of orthography it may be noted that t is everywhere doubled before r (as in -puttra, 1. 2); that b is written by a sign of its own in kuṭṭumbika, 1. 3, and bal-ádhikritêna, 1. 4, but by the sign for v in kuttumvikanám, 1. 6; and that the writer throughout has written # instead of the single (as in -kattaké, 1. 1). The style and phraseology of the inscription are very peculiar, and I know of no other inscription which is similar to it in this respect. A territorial term which I have not met with elsewhere, is paribhoga in line 3, used apparently in the sense of bhukti or bhôga, 'a district.'
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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
The inscription, described in line 2 as a prasáda-pattaka or 'document of favour,' is one of a Paramabhattáraka Mahárájádhirája Paramésvara Vijayarajadeva, and records a grant of land and other property in the Késarikôṭṭa paribhoga and the grant of a village named Pôtâ, in favour of some people of the Palha clan or caste. There is nothing to show to what dynasty Vijayarajadêva belonged, or to determine the time when he lived; and all that can be said, is that, judging by the writing, the inscription must be referred to Orissa or some part of India adjoining it, and to about the 11th or 12th century A.D.; and that, if the word kattaka (for kataka) in line 1 should have to be taken as a proper name, which probably is really the case, Vijayarajadêva, when these grants were made, resided at Cuttack, now the capital city of the province of Orissa. One point in the inscription which I am unable to explain satisfactorily, is the mention, in line 6, of two Maharajñis, Lachchhidevi and Hamsinidevi. The only suggestion which I can offer, is that Vijayarajadêva was a minor when the first grant was made, and that the government was then carried on in his name by these ladies.
The district of Kesarikoṭṭa and the village of Pôtâ I am unable to identify.
1 Perhaps I should also mention here that we find five times, at the end of a word, a instead of am or am; in line 4-táraká, nirvvahamánd, and pradattd, and in line 5 paripamthantyd and bhóktavyd.
* Compare Hemachandra's Prakrit Grammar, iv. 291, 289 and 287.
[Compare praadda, 'a favour, gift,' in line 6 of the Cochin plates (page 68 above), and paffa-mayaḥ prasddaḥ in the Udayêndiram plates of Hastimalla (Ind. Ant. Vol. XXIII. p. 296, note 2).-E. H.]
Compare the same vijaya-kataka in line 1 of the Sambalpur plates of Mahabhavagupta, Jours. As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. XLVI. Part I. p. 175; and in line 1 of the Chaudvar plates of the same, Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 55, and Proceedings, As. Soc. Bengal, 1882, p. 11.-A king Vijaya Kesari, supposed to have ruled A.D. 875-890, is mentioned in the list of the kings of Orissa, quoted in Mr. Sewell's Liste of Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 206.
