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102
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VII.
plates for both u and a; compare durlla- at the end of line 23, datakó, 1. 51, puraḥsarena, 1. 40, and púrvua, 1. 34.
Of the consonants, jh and 6 do not occur in the text, and the signs for ohh and th- the latter hardly to be distinguished from the sign for f-occur only as subscript letters. In general, it may suffice to draw the reader's attention to the forms of kh, e.g. in khyatah, 1. 9; g and * in Ganga, 1. 3; & in $dsvata, 1. 12; gh in vighaffi, 1. 19; ch in chandrah and j in jaléshu, l. 17; th in flatha, 1. 3; dh and v in pravôdha, 1. 16; ph in phala, 1.48; bh and h1 in mahabhakumbha, 1. 23, and graha, 1. 26; 1 in komaladalayatalo°, 1. 9; and s in sanchaya, 1. 8.
The signs for and ff are those which we find generally used in inscriptions from Eastern India ; compare pafund, 1. 29, shatpada, 1. 22, páttaka, 1. 36, and bhara, 1. 40.
For the form of the single n see e.g. phana, 1. 2, and gunind, 1. 10. When in $. nor i form the first part of a conjunct, two distinctly different signs are used to denote the two nasals; compare in s. mandana, 1. 14, and safichhanno , 1.6. In the present plates the signs for n and i as first parts of conjunots differ very slightly, if at all, and one sign only is used to denote the same two nasals as last parts of conjunots ; compare mandalan, 1. 10, safichaya, 1. 8, vánichhd, 1. 13, lanchhitan, 1. 50, krishna', 1. 8, and yajfais-, 1. 28. One sign only is used in the present plates also for the subscript chh and th, just as the plates of the time of Sasankar&ja use one sign for the same two letters; 'compare in $. sanchhannó, 1. 6, and ssthityu, 1. 16, and in the present plates váñchha, 1. 13, and sthali, l. 23.
When precedes another consonant, it is always, as in the modern Någari, denoted by a superscript sign ; but, excepting in the conjunct ry, the letter y, when it follows upon another consonant, is everywhere denoted by the secondary form of the letter y which in the same position is used throughout (even in ry) in 8. So it happens that the signs for such aksharas as tya, nya, shya, sya of the present plates differ very little from the corresponding signs of S.
The sign of avagraha is not used in these plates; nor do we find in them the sign of viráma, except perhaps in the final form of k, used in the word samyak at the commencement of line 43. Of other special signs for final consonants the plates contain one for t, in asakrat, 1. 15, kamalakaravat, 1. 24, Angirovat, 1. 39, and svadánat, 1. 48, and one for n, in gari(ri)yan, 1. 18.
To determine with confidence the exact time of these plates from the characters seems to me impossible; my impression is that they cannot be earlier than about the 10th century A.D. and that probably they are not much later.
No. 13.- BALODA PLATES OF TIVARADEVA.
By E. HULTZSCH, PH.D. These copper-plates were sent to me in Trnuary 1902 by Mr. A. B. Napier, L.O.S., on special duty in the office of the Commissioner of Settlements and Agriculture, Nagpur, before whom they had been produced in an enquiry into the succession to an estate. They belong to one Ude Singh, a resident of Baloda in the Phuljhar Zamindari of the Sambalpur district" of the Central Provinces.
1 In line 25 the writer has really written mabhodaydna, not mahodayana.
? In tonaththar (for ténétthanh), 1. 10, the writer or engraver has used the subscript sign for t also for the Bratth. For the sra of soa-gotram, 1. 24, he had originally put atha, but the back of the paper-impression seems to shew that this stha has been altered to sua.
