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No. 47.]
RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.
341
to the Sambalpur District, Central Provinces. I re-edit it from the original plates, which I examined in 1884; they were then in the collection of the Bengal Asiatic Society, having been presented by Captain M. M. Bowie, Deputy Commissioner of Sambalpur.
The plates are three in number, each measuring about 9f" by 5' at the ends and somewhat less in the middle. They are quite smooth; the edges of them having been neither fashioned thicker, nor raised into rims. The inscription, however, is in a state of perfect preservation throughout. -The ring, on which the plates are strung, is about " thick, and 41" in diameter. It had not been cut when the grant came under my notice. The seal, in which the ends of the ring are secured, is circular, about 14' in diameter. In relief on a countersunk surface it shews, very indistinctly, in the centre, some seated figare, perhaps of the goddess Lakshmi with her elephants, as on the seal of C.; and, on each side, apparently a ohauri: if there was ever & legend below this, it is now quite illegible; but it seems more likely that there was only a floral device.-The weight of the three plates is 7 lbs. 4 oz., and of the ring and seal, 1 lb. 4 os.; total, 8 lbs. 8 oz.- The characters are Någari, of the northern class. They include forms of the decimal figures 6 and 8, in line 41. The viráma does not oecur in this record; final forms occur, of t in kafakat, line 1, vasét, line 27, dady dt, line 29, and samvat, 1. 41,- of - in ddin and sarvodn, line 6,--and of m, resembling an anusudra with a viráma below it, in artham, line 19. The average size of the letters is about ". The engraving is good and deep; but, the plates being substantial, the letters do not show through on the reverse sides. The interiors of the letters shew, as usual, marks of the working of the engraver's tool. The way in which the surface of the plates, being evidently rather soft, was pressed up inside of and around the letters in the process of engraving, has rendered it impossible to obtain impressions giving an absolutely clear lithograph throughout; especially in Plates ii. a and b, and iii. a.-The language is Sanskrit. And, except for the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses in lines 24 to 39 and one ordinary verse at the end, the whole record is in prose. The rules of sandhi are neglected in several places. In respect of orthography, the only points that call for special notice are (1) the use of the guttaral nasal , instead of the anusvdra, in variga and varisi, line 45; and (2) the use of v for b, throughout. There are many cases in which the long vowel d has been given by mistake for the short u; but this seems a matter of carelessness, rather than of orthography.
The inscription is one of Maha-Bhavagupta I., otherwise called Janamêjaya. The charter contained in it was issued from the city of Kataka, which is evidently the modern Katak or 'Cuttack,' the chief town of the Cuttack District in Orissa, while the king was in residence at Mûrasima, which seems to have been some place on the outskirts of the city. And the object of it was to register a grant, to some Brahmans, of & village named Vakavedda, in the Ongâtaţa vishaya or district on the bank of the river Onga. The charter was written by a clerk in the office of a son of the Mahdsandhivigrahin Maladharadatta, on Ashadha éukla 8 in the sixth year of the reign of Janamêjaya, i.e. of Maha-Bhavagupta I. And the record ends with a verse in praise of the king under the name of Janamêjaya.
TEXT.
First Plate. i Om Svasti Mûrasima-samåvåsita[] frimato vijaya-Katakat paramabhattaraka• maharajadhi.
1 The words bijaya-latakdt, line 1, might be rendered by simply from the victorious town or camp." But the locality from which these records come, seems to indicate plainly that kataka is here the place-name.
• Bo, also, B., O., and D. were issued by Maha-Bhavagupta I., from Kataka, wbile be was in residence in the ardens or pleasure-garden.' From the original plates.
Represented by a plain symbol.
