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No. 21.)
KHARIAR COPPER PLATES OF MAHA-SUDEVA.
171
place occurs as Karial on the Indian Atlas sheet 92 N. E., Lat 82° 50' and 20° 17'. The plates have now been deposited in the Nagpur Museum.
There are three copper plates, ench measuring 59" x 31'. The first is inscribed on one side only. Traces on the other side show that the plate has formerly been used for another inscription. The plates are quite smooth, and their edges have neither been fashioned thicker, nor raised into rims. They are in an excellent state of preservation. Abont l' from the middle of the proper right margin, each plate has a hole, about in diameter, for the ring on which the plates are strong. This ring is oval, 37long and 248" broad. It had not been cut when the plates were sent to me.
The ends of the ring are secured in a circular seal, about 38" in diameter. It is identical with that described by Dr. Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions, p. 196. Ite upper part shows a representation of a standing Lakshmi facing full front; on each side of her an elephant is standing on a waterlily, with its trunk raised above her head. In the proper right corner there is an expanded waterlily, in the proper left corner a Sarikha.
The seal has been subjected to fire, and the legend could not be made out when I received the plates. It has, however, proved possible to clean it, so that it can now be read with certainty. It therefore also makes it possible to decide what the legend must have been on the corresponding seal published by Dr. Fleet, which is quite illegible.
The weight of the three plates is 1 lb. 24 oz.; and of the ring and seal 1 lb. 2 oz., total 2 lb. 44 oz.
The size of the letters is about 1'. The character is the same box-headed variety of the Central Indian alphabet as in the copper plates of the same king published by Dr. Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 196 and f. The long variety of i is denoted by a dot in the middle of the base of the circle denoting, and usually not in the centre of it as in the Arang plates of MahdJayaraja, por in the right side of it as in the Raipur plates of Mah-Sudēva. The separate sign of the cerebral d occurs in chudamani, 1. 1, and the final form of t in dadyat, 1. 18, and vaset, 1. 19. Note also the use of one and the same sign to denote a stop in 1. 5 and the visarga in l. 4, eto. The compound nigh occurs in Drônasinghêna, 1. 23, and fich in káfichanan, 1. 17; mahimatanchchhreshta, 1. 21, and, falsely, in dánáñch=chhréyo, 1. 22.
The numerical symbols for 2, 20, and 9 occur in l. 22.
The language is Sanskrit. The legend on the seal and the usual imprecatory stanzas, here attributed to Vyåsa, are in verse, the remainder of the inscription is in prose.
As regards orthography we have to note the doubling of k before r in vikkrama, 1. 1; the similar doubling of dh before y in anuddhyatad, 1. 3; the doubling of a consonant after in svargg8, 1. 18; visarjjit8, 1. 8; suvarnnan, 1. 16; dharmméshu and dharmma, 1. 13; súruva 1. 16; saruva, 1. 8; hêtur=vvasu, 1. 3; bhûr-vaishnavi, 1. 16; bahubhir-uvasudha, I. 19; the form savvatsara, i.e. saõvatsara, 1. 22; the use of the jihvámoliya in yak=kdñichanan, 1. 17 (but -rajah kahiti-, 1.4); of the upadhmaniya in .pradah parama., 1. 3; Sambilakayoh prativasi-, 1. 5, etc. The visarga is usually replaced by s before hard dentals. Before the stop, however, we find bhúmih tasya, 1. 20; -spishtah té, 1. 10. A superfluous anusvåra has been added in bhamipánn, 1. 12. Tri and tri have been interchanged in pitri-, 1.3, and tridata., 1. 6. Note finally the forms tâmbra-, 11. 10 and 28; Drônasirighéna, 1. 23, and the use of the genitive in Vishnusváminas, 1. 10.
The inscription is one of the R&ja Maha-Sudêva, and it is dated in the second year of his reign on the 29th day of Srávaņa. The engraver was Drônasingha, who also occurs in Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 191 and it
Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 186 and ff.
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