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No. 20.]
SEMRA PLATES OF PARAMARDIDEVA.
153
that it stood on the bank of the Mahendra-tataka, i... the tank of Mahêndra ;' and that it was situated in Mahendrapura, s.e. the city of Mahendra.' Mahendrapura is evidently & Sanskrit translation of Mahôndravadi. The Mahendra-taţåka is the partially ruined tank Dear which the temple stands. The city, the tank, and the temple were named after Mahendra. From the cave inscription at Vallam we know that Mshendrapôtaraja was the full name of the king whom the Mahendravadi and the Trichinopoly inscriptions designate by his surname Guņabhara, i.e. the bearer of virtues.' In editing the Vallam cave inscription, I have proposed to identify Mahendrapôtarája alias Gunabhara with one of the two Pallava kings called Mahendravarman, who belonged to the first half of the seventh century of our era. Mr. Venkayya has adduced certain facts reported in the Periyapuranam, which, if corroborated from other sources, would prove that Gunabhara is identical with Mahendravarman 1. Be that as it may, the Pallava kingdom must have embraced in the first half of the seventh century A.D. not only the Tondai-mandalam, within which Vallam and Mahendravådi are situated, but also the Chôļa country, to which Trichinopoly belongs.
TEXT 3 1 महिततमं
Hat[] [a]
zfA[4] 2 forces Fiftai JTHIT facra fuer[TH] [*] 3 ज[न] नयनाभिर[1]मगुणधाम
महेन्द्रपुरे 4 [fa] a fayeth [ft] [] [1]
TRANSLATION. Splitting the rock, Gruņabhara caused to be made on the bank of the Mahendra-tataka (tank) in the great (oity of) Mahendrapura this solid, spacious temple of Murári (Vishņu), named Mahendra-Vishnugpiha, which is highly praised by good people, (and which is) an abode of beauty pleasing the eyes of men.
No. 20.-SEMRA PLATES OF PARAMARDIDEVA;
[VIKRAMA-]SAMVAT 1223.
By W. CARTELLIERI, PH.D. The subjoined edition of this recently discovered inscription is based on ink-impressions which were taken by Dr. A. Führer and sent by him to Professor Bühler, who made them over to me for publication. Dr. Führer states that the original copper-plates were found in September 1892 at Semra, a village in the Bijawar State, Bundelkhand Agency, Central India, and 9 miles west of Shahgarh, a police station in the Sågar district of the Central Provinces, and were presented to the Lucknow Museum by the Maharaja of Bijawar through the Political Agent at Nowgong. The plates are three in number, measuring,- to judge from the impressions, about 2' 11" in breadth and about 1' 71 in height, and joined by a plain ring, which passes through a hole at the top or bottom, respectively, of each plate. At the top of the first plate is a representation of the goddess Lakshmi, which divides the first five lines
South-Indian Insoriptions, Vol. II. p. 341.
Above, Vol. III. p. 977 f. From inked estampages, prepared by Mr.T. P. Krishnasvami Sastri, M.A. • Read fue. The final mat the end of the two first lines stands below the line.
