Epigraphia Indica Vol 07

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

Page 38

No. 6.]
CAMBAY PLATES OF GOVINDA IV.
of the ring are soldered into a roughly square seal, which measures 27" in height and breadth, and bears, in relief on a countersunk surface, as the principal figure, an image of Garuda, squatting and facing to the full front, with his prominent beak-nose and expanded wings, and holding a snake in each hand. On Garuda's proper right there is a representation of Gapapati in the upper corner, and lower down a chauri and a lamp; and on his proper left, some goddess, sented on an animal, too indistinct to be recognised, and below her, a svastika. Along the border or the seal are to be seen certain emblems, among which a dagger, a bow and an arrow, and a thunderbolt are recognisable. Beneath the central figure certain letters were doubtless engraved, but are now almost effaced. The engraving is clear and well executed. The characters agree fully with those of the other Rashtrakûța records of this period, viz. the 10th century. The average size of the letters is about #".-The language is Sanskrit throughout. Excepting the introductory svasts, down to the beginning of line 38 the inscription is in verse; and the rest is in prose, excepting the five benediotive and imprecatory verses (ll. 61-66) and another verse, containing the name of the person who drew up the charter (1. 66 f.). All the verses of this grant, excepting three of the introductory, and two of the genealogical, verses, occur in the Sangli charter of the same royal grantor, vix. the Rashtrakůța prince Govinda IV.-As regards orthography, it is sufficient to say (1) that the letter b is throughout denoted by the sign for v; (2) that the letters g, j, n, t, d, p, m, 1 or v following r are doubled ; but in the case of ju or the conjunct dyu coming after , the letter jord is not doubled. There is also an indifference about the doubling of y following r; thus it is doubled in Nágamáryyasya in l. 60, but not in Nagamiryaya in 1.52; (3) that the letter dh is doubled (with d in the usual manner) in conjunction with a following y, once in samvaddhyamánao in 1. 42; and (4) that the final m of a word, instead of being changed to an anusvára, is twice joined to a following p, in pulalam-payat and phanin.im-patynh in l. 4.- As regards prosody, it is worthy of note that the metre of verse 7, which occurs also in the Sangli grant, cannot be determined. There can be little doubt that it is an instance of a half-equal metre (ardha-sama-vrilta). But it cannot be identified with any one of the halfequal metres, given in ordinary works on prosody. There is, indeed, a rule of prosody that any two quarters of regular metres may be combined to form what is technically called an upajiti. But even here the unequal quarters of the verse in question cannot be severally identified with those of the regular metres.
The inscription is one of the Rashtrakûţa prince Govinda IV. or, as he is described in lines 40-42, the Paramabhatfúraka Maharajadhiraja Paramétvura, the prosperous Suvarnavarshadéva-Prithvivallabha, the prosperous Vallabhanarendradêva, who meditated on the feet of the Paramabhaffáraka Maharajadhirúja Paraméscara, the prosperous Nityavarsha, i.e. his father Indra III. Govindaraja had, when this charter was issued, gone from his capital Manyakheta to Kapitthaka near the bank of the Godavari, for the festival of patfabındha (1. 46). On that occasion he weighed himself against gold. When he ascended the scalea, he bestowed on Brahmang six hundred agrahüras and three laca of suvarna coins, and on temples eight hundred villages, four laca of suvarnas and thirty-two lacs of drammas (11.46-19). Afterwards, without descending from the pan, he granted the village of Kévañja, lying near the holy place Kivika and
1 The figures on this seal are identical with those on that of the Dell plates, excepting the central figure, which Dr. Hultzsch thinks to be that of Siva. See above, Vol. V. p. 189, note 1.
The term pattabandha, which literally means binding of the fillet,' has been generally supposed to signify coronation ceremony. Though evidence may perhaps be adduced in support of this signification, there can be little doubt that it does not wait here. The earliest record of Govinda IV. gives for him the date Saka 840 (expired), which is prior to Saka 852 (expired), the date of our grant, by no less than twelve years. It is hardly credible that he remained uncrowned for at least twelve years, if paffabandha is to be understood in the sense of coronation-ceremony. Besides, in these as well as the Sangli plates he is expressly said to have been permanently settled at his capital Manyakha' when he inued the charters. Again, what can be more unnatural than that a king, instead of getting himself crowned at his own capital, goes to some place far away from it for his coronation ? For these reasons, I think, the word pattabandha does not here at any rate mean 'coronation.ccrenony.'
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