Epigraphia Indica Vol 03

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 416

No. 47.]
BECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.
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B., C., and D.-- Katak Copper-plate Grants of the thirty-first year
of Maha-Bhavagupta I. These three records form what is called in line 46 of B., line 48 of C., and line 50 of D., & triphall-timra-sasana or set of three connected charters. The object of them was to register the fact that Maha-Bhavagupta I. granted to a Brahman named Sadharana, -- apparently the person who is mentioned in them as his chief minister,-the villages of Randa and Alandale in the Pôvå vishaya (B. lines 4, 5), Arkigrams in the Tulumva khanda (C. lines 4, 5), and Talênde, or perhaps Trûlênde, in the Sandang vishaya (D. line 5), in the Kosala dess or country (B. line 4, 0. line 4, D. line 5). The charters were all written by one and the same person, Mâhûka, on Marga sukla 13 in the thirty-first year of the reign of MahlBhavagupta I.; and they were all engraved by one and the same person, Madhava. Why the grants were not all recorded in one and the same charter, is not apparent; except on the hypothesis that, the villages conveyed by each charter being in different territorial divisions, separate deeds were required for exhibition to the different local authorities of the three divisions.
As the plates are not all of the same size, and so the forty-nine lines of which B. consists run out into fifty-one lines in C. and fifty-three lines in D., the records do not lie uniformly on the three sets of plates. But, with the exception that, for the words Kosa(sa)la-désé Pôvdvifa(sha)yiya-Randa-gråmé | tatha Alandala-gráme of B. lines 4, 5, we have Kôša(sa)la-défe Tulumva-khandiya-Arkigramd-grame in C. lines 4, 5, and Kota (sa) la-débé Sandand-visa(sha)yiyaTa(? trdlanda-gråmå in D. line 5, the texts were intended to be identical throughout, and practically are so, savo for a few of the accidental slips which are always met with in records of this kind. It seems sufficient, therefore, to give the text of B. only, in full; mentioning in the footnotes any points of interest in which the text of C. and D. agree with or differ from it. And a lithograph of B. suffices to illustrate all the three records.
B.
This record was originally brought to notice in 1875, in the Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 55 ff., by Babu Rangalala Banerjea, according to whose account the plates were found in ploughing & field at Chaudwâr, on the opposite side of the river to Katak. I re-edit it from the original plates, which I obtained for examination, in 1883, from Mr. Beames, I.C.S. (Bengal), who communicated the Babu's paper to the journal in which it was published.
The plates are three in number, each measuring about 99" by 58' at the ends and somewhat less in the middle. The edges of them were fashioned slightly thicker than the inscribed portions, so as to serve as rims to protect the writing; and the inscription is in & state of perfect preservation throughout. The ring, on which the plates are strong, 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. It is a good deal damaged ; but it shews, in relief on a slightly countersunk surface, the goddess Lakshmi, seated on a throne, with, on each side of her, an elephant, with its trunk lifted up over her head; below this, there was some legend which is now quite illegible. The weight of the three plates is 4 lbs. 7 oz., and of the ring and seal, 1 lb. 15 oz. ; total, 6 lbs. 6 oz. - The characters are Någari, of the northern class. They include forms of the decimal figures 1 and 3, in line 45, 46. The virdma occurs, in conjunotion with the full forms of the letters to which it is attached, in katakát, line l, vrajet, lino 21, dadyat, line 22, partthivandran, lines 31, 32, and samvat, line 45; but the final form of occurs in urdhmandn and vibayiyan, line 5, and rarován, line 7, and a final form of m, resembling an anusvára with a virama below it, in
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