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154
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA,
[Vol. VI.
may be classed together with those of e.g. the Nadagam (in Gañjam) plates of Vajrahasta of saks. Samvat 979 (No. 357 of my List of Insor. of North. India), the Bâmanghati (in Orissa) plate of Ranabhañja (ibid. No. 655), the Orissa (?) plates of Vidyadharabhañja (ibid. No. 658), the Patna, Katak and Kadopali plates of Mahabhavagupta I. and II. (ibid. Nos. 659, 660, 664 and 665), the Buguda (in Gañjâm) plates of Madhavavarman (ibid. No. 673), the Gañjâm plates of Prithivivarman (ibid. No. 672), and even the Assam plates of Ratnapalavarman, Indrapâlavarman and Balavarman (ibid. Nos. 711-714). To prove this with full details would lead me too far here, but I may invite the reader's attention at least to the forms of the aksharas ta and tta used in the present inscription (e.g. in the word kheta in line 30, and in Ummaffa- at the end of line 5), the type of which is equally found in all the eastern inscriptions enumerated, while it is absent from the records of other parts of Northern India. Of peculiar forms of letters on the first side of the plate I would point out that of the letter n (e.g. in nitási-, 1. 3, and anandans, 1. 4), which has found no place yet in our paleographic Tables ; it also occurs in the Nadagam plates of Vajrahasta (above, Vol. IV. p. 189, and Plate, e.g. in bhuvana-vinuta-, l. 1). I may mention besides that in the word charitärtha- in line 12 ther of the akshara rtha clearly is written on, not above, the line. On the second side attention may be drawn, amongst other things, to the form of the letter h (e.g. in mahiyasi mahim-ahi- in line 20), which also is absent from our palæographic Tables, but occurs e.g. in the Orissa (?) plates of Vidyadharabhañjs (Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. LVI. Part I. Plate ix.); to the form of the subscript a, 6.g. in chi[hna]-bhátá, 1.21, and vabhava, l. 22, which is the form of 4 constantly used in the Nadagam plates; to the medial & in patharha (for yatharhan), l. 28, in the nå of Dânálavaḥ, 1. 40,9 and in the grå of -gráma, 1. 41; to the fact that the letters t, r and i occasionally are turned the wrong way, as in chiram- and suta tasyd in line 20, and dhiraja-, 1. 23; to the final t in samvat, 1. 35, and frimat, 1. 38; to the occurrence of the rare letter jh in ajhårata- at the end of line 42 ;' and to the apparently very modern formspeculiar, so far as I can see, to Orissa- of the letters p, ph and sh in the corrupt passage md bhuda aphasana sah para-datishu in line 37. Nor would I omit to mention that in line 26 the first akshara of the word which I have transcribed by [sth] andntari[k]&n= is denoted by a strange sign which bears no resemblance at all to the ordinary sign for sth. But what in this inscription-a record which from its general appearance could hardly pretend to any great antiquity - seems to me most remarkable, is the employment of numerical symbols in the date of it (in lines 35 and 36), which I have transcribed by samvat 100 80 Márgafirsha-vadi 5 (?). In this respect, I can compare with the present grant only the Bâmånghâti (in Orissa) plate of Ranabhañja, in which the year of the date is similarly denoted by numerical symbols (for 200, 80 and 8). It is noteworthy that both these grants come from the same part of India, where
1 In some of these inscriptions it is difficult to distinguish between the signs for fand, and there are some in which no difference at all is made between the two
The same sign for nd is used in line 89, in the word transcribed by [pe P]nd[16]. The medial d is occasionally written in the same manner in the Kadopali plates (above, Vol. IV. p. 258, Plate), in the aksharat gd, ngd, ffa, dad and 6d (and also in ad).
The sign for jh, bere employed, resembles the sign for the same letter used in the Assam plates of Vallabhadêra, above, Vol. V. p. 185, 1. 41, in the phrase sa-jhdta-vitapa. A similar sign for jl also occurs in line 11 of the Kudopali plates, above, Vol. IV. p. 258, where the actual reading, as I now see, is sa-jhafa-vitap-dranya (for sa-jhdfa-cifap-dranyab), not sa-(od ntta-pitfap-dranya.
• The sign employed by the writer is perhaps really meant for thd, not atha.
Above, Vol. IV. p. 196, note 4, I have giveu the latest known copper-plate inscriptions with numerical symbols, tbe time of which can be fixed with certainty, and have stated that they are all anterior to A.D. 800. The only stone inscriptions with numerical symbols which are later than A.D. 800, 80 far as I know, are Nos, 501, 545 and 560 of my List of Insor. of North, India.
• See Jour. Beng. As. 800. Vol. XL. Part I. Plate ii. last line; and Prof. Bühler's Ind. Palaographie, Plate IX. col. xviii., wbere (probably only in consequence of the numerical symbols) Raqabhaija's plate is assigBed to the 9th century A.D.
