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No. 31.]
KONDAMUDI PLATES OF JAYAVARMAN.
G.-Maravarman Kulasekhara II. (March 6-July 23, A.D. 1314). No. 29. 4th year: July 23, A.D. 1317.
No. 30. 5th year: March 5, A.D. 1319.
No. 28. 8th year: November 14, A.D. 1321.
(To be continued.)
315
No. 31.-KONDAMUDI PLATES OF JAYAVARMAN.
BY E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.
The copper plates which bear the subjoined inscription were received in June 1901 from Mr. R. Morris, I.C.S., Collector of the Kistna district, along with an abstract of their contents by Mr. J. Ramayya, B.A., B.L. They had been recently discovered in a mound in the village of Konḍamudi in the Tenali taluka of the Kistna district and will be deposited in the Madras Museum.
The copper plates are eight in number, and measure about 7" in breadth and about 31" in height. Their edges are not raised into rims. In the upper left corner of the first side of each plate is cut a hole for the ring on which they were strung. The ring measures about 31" in diameter and about " in thickness, and its ends are soldered into the base of a circular seal of about 1" diameter. The ring had not yet been cut when the plates came into my hands. In the centre of the seal is, in relief, a trident the handle of which seems to end in an arrow, a bow (?), the crescent of the moon, and an indistinct symbol of roughly triangular shape. Round the margin of the seal runs a Sanskrit legend in archaic characters which differ totally from those employed on the plates. The preservation of the plates is tolerably good; but the first side of the first plate is so much corroded that it can be read only with great difficulty. Besides, two corners of the first plate are broken off, and it has in this way become detached from the ring.
The alphabet of this inscription closely resembles that of the Mayidavolu plates of Sivaskandavarman (No. 8 above). It shows the same peculiars, m, j, and e. The group ja (11. 5, 11 and 34) has a different shape, the vowel-mark being attached on the right, and not at the top of the letter as in the Mayidavolu plates (11. 18 and 24). The n (or n) is identical in shape with the lingual d, but the dental d is represented by a separate character, while in the Mayidavolu plates no distinction is made between all the four letters. Initial o occurs twice (11. 19 and 27), and ph (1. 4), dh (1. 17), gh (1. 19), th (1. 37) and initial (1. 18) once.
The language is Prakrit, with the exception of the two Sanskrit words Mahésvara (1. 3) and Brihatphalayana (1. 4) and the Telugu village name Pântara (11. 24 and 29). As in the Mayidavolu plates, the orthography follows the practice of the cave inscriptions, where a single consonant does duty for a double letter. Double n and double m are expressed by anusvára and n (11. 15 and 19) and m (11. 5 and 44), respectively; a superfluous anusvára occurs before the groups mh and nh (11. 7, 8, 10, 16, 17, 24, 26 and 29). The instrumental etehi nam (1. 35) is known from the Andhra inscriptions and from the Jaina Prakrit. The curious phrases etasa chasa (1. 28) and etam chasin (1. 36) also have their parallels in the Andhra inscriptions. A peculiar word is asi (11. 13, 14, 15 and 18), amsi (11. 17, 20 and 22) or amsiká (1. 21), 'a share,' which seems to be derived from the Sanskrit améa. Divadha (1. 17) represents the Ardhamâgadhi divaddha, 'one and a half."5
1 Just as here two different alphabets are employed for Sanskrit and Prakrit, the inscriptions of the Tamil country use the Vatteluttu and the Tamil alphabets for Tamil words and the Grantha alphabet for Sanskrit words.
The only exception would be amaik-dddhd (1. 21), if this reading is correct.
4. 8. W. I. Vol. IV. p. 104, note 9. Prof. Pischel (Grammatik der Prdkrit-Sprachen, p. 114) derives the particle sam or nam from the Sanskrit ndnam.
Loc. cit. text line 8; p. 105, text line 5; p. 106, text line 11; and p. 118, text line 3. Prof. Pischel's Grammatik der Prakrit-Sprachen, p. 320.
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