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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. VIII.
remarks of Dr. Fleet's article, which was accompanied by photo-lithographs of the inscription (on the back of the Plate) and of the seal (on the front of the Plate). The present facsimile of the inscription has been prepared, under Dr. Fleet's superintendence, from fresh ink-impressions made for him, in 1903, in the British Museum. The seal has been reproduced from a plaster cast taken by Mr. Griggs from a sealing-wax impression which was made at the same time in the British Museum. The sealing-wax impression shows, in the centre of the seal, a standing animal which faces the proper right and looks like a deer, but must be meant for a bull,1 the crest of the Pallavas, and over the back of the bull, a few indistinct symbols which may be taken for the sun, a crescent, and perhaps one or more stars.
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The characters of the inscription resemble those of the Hirahaḍagalli plates of ŚivaSkandavarman, but are less ornamental and more irregular. This seems to be due to the fact that the engraver mechanically copied a draft which had been written in a pronounced running hand. Instances are the va in line 14 and the vám of gavám (1. 15), the subscribed of savva (1. 11) and the subscribed ch of bahubhisch [a]° (1: 12), the vowel i of gameyiká (1. 10) and of pibati (1. 15). The group tta, while in most cases resembling nna, has two other shapes: in uttare (1. 6) the upper t has a fully developed loop, as in Tamil, and in chhettam (1.7) and datta (112) the lower t is fashioned in the same manner. The initial á of ayu (1. 8) differs from that of Atukassa (1. 6), ayutta (1. 10) and ánatti (1. 16). In the nd of nivattand (1. 9) the n is placed in a slanting position, and the a fills up the right upper corner. Another peculiar letter is the tha of pariharatha and pariharápe[tha] (1. 11). A rude final form of m occurs at the end of 11. 13, 14, 15. Marks of punctuation are used after siddha on the left margin of plate i. and at the end of the inscription. In 11. 12-15 every odd pada of the two slokas is divided from the next by a blank space. Plates ii. a and ii. b are marked like the pages of a book by the numerical symbols 2' and '3' on the left margin, and the numerical symbol '4' occurs in 1. 9.
While in the Andhra inscriptions every double consonant is expressed by a single letter, the orthography of Chârudêvî's grant is in accordance with that of the literary Prakrit. In the word samvvachchhara (1. 1), v is doubled after anustura. As to the language of the inscription, noteworthy words are Bharaddaya (1. 2) for Bharadvaja, talaka, het [th]a, pániya (1. 5) and chhetta (1.7).7 Instances of the nom. plur. neutr. are the three words nivattana chattari sampadattá (1. 9 f.). The abl. sing. [kû]pát (1. 5 f.) is due to a relapse into Sanskrit. Pronominal forms are amham (1. 8) and amhehim (1. 9), the genitive and instrumental of asmad, and tam (1. 10), the acc. sing. neutr. of tad. Verbal forms are the gerunds katuna (1. 9) and natûna (1. 10) and the imperatives pariharatha pariharupe[tha] (1. 11).
The inscription is dated in some year of the reign of the Maharaja Vijaya-Skandavarman, the figure or figures of the date being illegible. It contains an order by the queen of the heirapparent (Yuvamaharaja) Vijaya-Buddhavarman, who was one of the Pallavas and, as such, a Bharadvaja or member of the Bharadvaja gôtra. I read the queen's name as Chârudêvi, and that of the prince whose mother she claims to have been as [Bu]ddhi[yam]kura or, in Sanskrit, Buddhyankura. In favour of my restoration of this damaged word it may be stated that ankura, a sprout,' is synonymous with pallava, and that other Pallavas bore the similar surnames
1 Compare Dr. Fleet's Dyr. Kan. Distr. p. 319, note 5.
2 Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 2 ff.
These two words were already noted by Bühler, ibid. p. 2, note 2.
Compare e.g. nivattaná (1. 9) with bhagavannd" (1. 8).
In this respect the two grants of Siva-Skandavarman (Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 4, and Vol. VI. p. 86) occupy an intermediate position.
The same form occurs in the two grants of Siva-Skandavarman.
On the four last words see Prof. Pischel's edition of Hemachandra's Prakrit grammar, I. 202; II. 141; I. 101; II. 17.
