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No. 23.) RAJAPURA COPPER PLATES OF MADHURANTAKADEVA.
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of the State, set himself to make a searoh for the antiquarian remains in that little known and remote quarter, at my request. Mr. Baijnath has been richly rewarded for his efforts, for, in addition to the present copper plates, he has discovered more than twenty new inscriptions in Sanskrit and Teluga characters, of most of which he has sent me ink estampages and tracings. I have deciphered several of them and they will in due course appear in this Journal. I begin with the copper plates, as this is perhaps the most ancient Sanskrit inscription yet found in Bastar. Mr. Baijnath found the plates in the possession of a Brahman named Gangadhar PÅrhi of Kåwadgaon close to Rajapura. Gangadhar received them from his sister-in-law, who found them buried in a field at Náharni, sixteen miles from Rajapura.
There are three copper plates, held together by a ring, soldered into what was apparently the lower portion of a seal, which had been broken off. Each plate is about 10" x 5" and they weigh 29, 30 and 35 tolas, respectively, the weight of the ring being 26 tolas. The plates are smooth, sufficiently thick, and in an excellent state of preservation. They are inscribed on both sides, except the first one, which is inscribed on one side only. Mr. T. G. Green, Superintendent of the Secretariat Press, Nagpur, kindly took for me impressions, which are reproduced in the accompanying plate. The plates are numbered 1, 2, 3, on the margin, which was apparently left to prevent the ring holes from coming in between the written lines. The word ért has been engraved in the upper margin of the first plate, over the figure 1.
The second side of the third plate is inscribed with benedictive and imprecatory figures. ris., 12 hands in a row at the top, beneath which there is to the proper left a cow with a boll attached to her neck, and a dagger and a shield beside her feet, a florated linga in the form of arastika in the middle, and a woman parsued by a donkey to the proper right, with the figure of the sun and the moon over it. My interpretation of these figures is as follows:-The hands are uplifted, apparently as an expression of benediction on the donor, and they are twelve, probably because there were 12 pátras or donees referred to in the inscription. The cow is apparently drawn to remind us that whosoever appropriates the gifted land, will have to reap the same consequences which a cow's curse can produce, or will fall Lato the same calamity as cow is in when deprived of her calf. Siva is shown as the protector against aggression on the spiritual side, and the ruling king's dagger and shield on the temporal. The san and the moon indicate that the grant is to last as long as these luminaries endure. Lastly the obscene figure of an ass associating with a woman is a vulgar imprecation implying that the transgressor of & gift should be so low-born.
The inscription is in the Någari character. The average size of the letters is 11". They are well formed and clearly written,
The language is corrupt Sanskrit, and except the benedictive and imprecatory verses, which are inserted in a somewhat disconnected manner, the remainder of the inscription is probe. In fact, the whole composition is disjointed, and there are several grammatical slips and spelling mistakes.
The most noteworthy orthographical peculiarities are the representation of the initial i with two dots and a stroke underneath, resembling the Nagari figure 2 (11. 13, 16, 23 and 330). The anusvåra is put at the side of the letter and is represented by a dot with a hala underneath (11. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26 and 27), but in several instances it is also represented in the ordinary way by a dot on the top of the letter (11. 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 31 and 32). One top stroke representative of the matris
Compare my remarks, alove, p. 164.
