________________
104
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(Vor. IX.
inscribed on one side only. The writing on the several sides covers a space between 1' 4" and 1' 49" broad by between 10 and 11t' high. In the lower proper right corner of the first side of the third plate a space about 2" broad by 3" high is marked off by double lines, which enclose an engraving of the mythical bird Garuda, the exact shape of which may be seen from the accompanying photo-lithograph. The plates are held together by two rings for which there are two holes in each plate; these rings, I am informed, are open and were apparently never soldered together.
The three plates contain 80 lines of well-engraved writing, which is in so perfect a state of preservation that, with the exception of not more than three aksharas, every letter may be read with absolate certainty. In line 40 a vacant space is left for four aksharas which may have been illegible in the original from which the inscription was copied ; and there is a similar vacant space for two aksharas in line 54. The size of the letters is between 1 and ". The characters are Nagari of the period to which the inscription belonge, and the language is Sanskrit. The forms of individual letters hardly call for any remarks. Attention may be drawn to the initial i and i (e.g. in iva, 1. 4, and Udai', 1. 50), and to the initial é (in ésha, 1. 17) and au (e.g. in Audalya., 1. 27, and Auruva-, I. 40); perhaps also to the forms of th (e.g. in purushirtha-, 1. 1,) and ksh (e.g. in súkshát5, 1. 1). It may also be stated that the signs for t and bh, and those for ddh and do, often are so much alike that it is very difficult to distinguish between them. As the 22 verses in lines 1-17 are all numbered, the inscription offers specimens of all numeral figures, and in lines 28, 34, 49 and 50, it gives the fraction , denoted by two vertical lines, placed, as the case may be, after a numeral or the sign for nought. In line 79, before tho worl rachitams, the text contains a peculiar symbol (perhaps a monogram), the meaning of which I am unable to explain.- As regards orthography, the sign for v denotes both b and v; the dental sibilant is used instead of the palatal about 30 times, and the palatal instead of the dental about 25 times (even in such ordinary words as futah for sutah, 1. 9, Sumavéda- for Sámavéda-, 1. 29, etc.); ri is used for fi in Rishi-, 1. 60, and ri for ri in tri for trio (i.e. trivdda-), 1. 29 and elsewhere, and in Saktsi- for Saktri-, 11. 23 and 71 ; j is employed instead of y in jasó- for yaso-, l. 73, and in the names Jasôdhara-, l. 29, and Jasadeva- (for Yaśôdéva-), l. 64; and ksh for khy in Sinkshayang., . 46. The occasional employment of dy, dv and dhu for ddy, ddv and ddhu need perhaps hardly be mentioned; but I may add that the word (imratám is written támorati in line 2, and that the sign of avagraha is employed three times, in sosdbhuta", 1 15, odáydsyams, 1. 75, and uudhvassmado, 1. 75. There are a few clerical errors not referred to in the above, that can all be easily corrected. The inscription, in lines 1-17, has 22 verscs which chiefly contain genealogical matter, and of which verses 1-19 were already known to us from the three grants of king Arjunavarman. In addition to them, we have in lines 20-22 tbe well-known verse commencing with Vitabhra-vibhramam-idan vasudh-adhipatyam which, with a single exception, occurs in all Paramâra plates, and in lines 75-79 four benedictive and imprecatory verses, the last of which, commencing with Iti kamaladalamburindu-lélém, is common to all Paramára plates. The rest of the text is in prose. In the poetical portion wo find in line 6 the as far as I can see, perfectly correct) adjective addå man, instead of wdima which alone is given by the dictionaries. And in the prose part there occurs, in lines 72 and
Similar reprebrntations of Garuda are found on all complete plates of the Parameras of MAlava, of which facsimiles have been published ; compare e. g. above, Vol. III. Plate opposite p. 50.
Compare above, Vol. VII. p. 86. • Nos. 195, 197 and 198 of my Northern Lint. • Viz. th. Ujjain plates of VAk patirkja, published in Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 160.
. I know of no grammatical rule by which a compound formed of wd and ddman in the sense of damna udgala) would become udddma, and most of the passages, which in the dictionaries are quoted under udd&ma, might just as well be p'aced under udddmas. In his commeutary on Raghunahia I. 78, Malliuâtha actually explains wdddma-diggajd by uddamdná dámns wdg atd diggajd yaumin.
