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98
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA,
[VOL. VII.
40 khanitam buvar pakara-Gapêsva (sva)rêpa 11 Samvat*
2 Sa(sa)nau pradattam=iti || gva: 11
1187
Phalva(Igu)na-uudi
No. 11.- LAR PLATES OF GOVINDACHANDRA OF KANAUJ;
[VIKRAMA-]SAMVAT 1202.
BY F. KIELHORN, Pa.D., LL.D., C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. These copper-plates were found at the village of Lar in the Gorakhpur district, United Provinces, the Larh' of the Indian Atlas, sheet No. 103, long. 84° 2', lat. 26° 14'. They were handed over to Dr. W. Hoey by Babu Ramsaran Singh and Babu Mahadeo Singh, and presented by him to the Provincial Museum, Lucknow, in September 1898. My account of them is based on impressions, sent to Dr. Holtzsch by the late Mr. E. W. Smith,
The plates are two in number, each of which, to judge from the impressions, measures about 1'3" broad by 11' high, and is inscribed on one side only. There is a ring-hole in the centre of the lower part of the first plate and a corresponding hole in the centre of the upper part of the second plate; and together with the impressions of the plates there has been sent to me the impression of a circular seal, about 24" in diameter, which bears in high relief, across the centre, the legend Srimad-Govindacha[n]dradéva[h], in Nagari letters about You" high; above the legend, apparently a figare of Garuda; and below the legend, a conch-shell. The first plate contains 21 and the second 17 lines of writing, which is generally very well preserved. The size of the letters is about $". The characters are Nagari, and the language is Sanskrit. As regards orthography, the letter 6 is denoted by the sign for v, except in the word babhramurs, 1. 11; the dental sibilant is frequently employed instead of the palatal, and the palatal occasionally instead of the dental; and the words dmra and támra are written ámura and támora, in lines 19 and 37.
The inscription is one of the Paramabhaffáraka Maharajadhiraja Paramétvara Gôvindachandradêva.The king records in it that, when in residence at Mudgagiri, after bathing in the Ganges on the occasion of the Akshaya-tfitiya festival, on Monday, the third tithi of the bright half of the month Vaisakha in the year 1202 (given both in words and in figares, 11. 20 and 21), he granted the village of Pôtâchevada in the Pandala pattald, in Gôvisalaka that belonged to Dudhali in Saruvára, to the Thakkura Sridhara, the son of the Thakkura Madhava and son's son of the Thakkura Uddharana (P), a Brahman (learned in the four Vedas) of the Kasyapa gôtra, whose three pravaras were Kåśyapa, Avatsara and Naidhruve. - The taxes specified (in line 26) are the bhágabhôgakara, pravanikara and turushkadanda. The grant (tâmra-paffaka) was written by the Karanika, the Thakkura Solhaņa.
The date regularly corresponds, for the Karttikadi Vikrama-Samvat 1202 expired, to Monday, the 15th April A.D. 1146, which was entirely occupied by the third tithi of the bright half of the month Vaisakha. Of the localities, Mudgagiri is the modern Monghyr, the chief town and administrative head-quarters of the Monghyr district, Bengal; situated on the south bank of the Ganges. Regarding the other places or districts mentioned, I can only say that Saruvara
1 Wrong for badtan.
* Read sashoat. * Compare the symbol which looks like chha, eg. above, Vol. IV. p. 101, note 8. • Compare the inscriptions edited by me above, Vol. IV. p. 99 ff., and Vol. V. p. 113 ff.
The titli commenced 0 h. 47 m. before mesn Funrise and ended 1 h. 4 m. after mean runrise of the next day, and was therefore, for the Monday, a prathama trittyd.-The date would shew that the date of the inscription edited by me above, Vol. V. p. 116, must after all be taken to correspond to Monday, the 19th April A.D. 114, because the king could not have bathed in the Ganges both at Benarus and at Monghyr on one and the same day.
