Epigraphia Indica Vol 06

Author(s): E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 29

16
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. VI.
others, he is burnt in hell for sixty-thousand years. He who preserves this (gift), shares the reward of it. And it has been said : The earth has been possessed by many kings, commencing with Sagara; to whomsoever at any time the land belongs, to him, for the time being, belongs the reward (of a grant).
(L. 18.) This charter was written by the private secretary Damodaradatta.
B.-BANNAHALLI PLATES OF KRISHNAVARMAN II.
The seventh year. These plates were discovered about 1888, while digging at Bannahalli in the Chikmagaļår tâluka of the Kadür district of Mysore, and are now in the possession of the Pâțil of Haļêbid. They were first publicly noticed by Mr. Rice in his Inscriptions at Sravana-Belgola, Introduction, p. 15; and an account of their contents is given by Dr. Fleet in his Dynasties, second ed., p. 290.
These are four copper-plates, the first and last of which are inscribed on one side only, and each of wbich measures about 84" broad by 24" high. They are quite smooth, the edges being neither fashioned thicker nor raised into rims. The engraving is good, but not very deep. The letters do not shew through on the reverse sides of the plates; they shew marks of the working of the engraver's tool, throughout.- On one of the edges, the plates are numbered, by four notches on plate i., three on plate ii., two on plate iii., and one on plate iv. (s.e. in exactly the reverso order); and near these notches there is also a single notch on each plate : whether this marking is ancient or recent, is not apparent. - The plates are strong on a ring, which bad been cut already when the grant came into Dr. Fleet's hands; it is about thick, and 27 in diameter. The ends of the ring are secured in a seal which is roughly circular, about 1}' in diameter. About a quarter of an inch from the edge of it, there is & raised rim; and inside this, in relief on a countersunk surface, there is a lion, standing to the proper right. The weight of the four plates is 1 lb. 94 oz., and of the ring and seal, 7 oz.; total, 2 lbs. 02.--The writing is well preserved. The size of the letters is between t' and it". The characters belong to the southern alphabet. With those of the Halal plates of the fifth year of the Maharaja Harivarman (Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 31, Plate) they have this in common that the letter t, both when used singly and in conjuncts, is mostly denoted by the sign with the loop; bat otherwise they quite differ from those of other Kadamba inscriptions, and might, in their general appearance, rather be compared with the characters of the Chikkulla plates of Vikramêndravarman II. (above, Vol. IV. p. 196, Plate). From the photo-lithograph it will be seen that the letters are frequently finished off, or embellished, with small circles. The sta of sasti in line 1 has two such circles at the ends of the lines on the proper right; the sti of the same word two at the bottom of the superscript i, and one at the end of the proper right stroke of 8; the ya of the following word jayaty- has two at the top; etc. I believe, there can be no doubt that by these circles the writer has tried to imitate the little boxes' of the characters of such inscriptions as the Uruyupalli plates of the Pallava Yuvamaharaja Vishnugopavarman (Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 51, Plates), and has done this in a not very intelligent manner. A certain influence of the characters of Pallava inscriptions may perhaps be distinctly traced also in the use of the looped t already mentioned; and in the fact that in the akshara nd the vowel a is here denoted by a separate downward stroke, while in other Kadamba inscriptions it is nearly always written, in the ordinary way, by bending back the last downward stroke of , in an upward direction; compare the aksharas nám in line 4 of the present inscription, nô in line
! For other plates which are marked in the same manner, so Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 197.
I owe the above information to Dr. Flest, According to whom the later Kadambas, both of Angal and of Goa, also had the simila-Idhollana or lion-crest; see his Dynasties, second ed., pp. 560 and 566. Mr. Rice finde the lion also on the soul of the Hitpabebb gilu plates; 1 Ep. Caru. Vol. IV. Introduction, p. 2.