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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
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of e, ai, 8 and au is exhibited by a vertical stroke placed before the letter to which it is attached -a practice which is still followed in the Bengali and Oriya writing, but exceptions may be found side by side, where it is placed on the top of the letter according to the practice now followed in writing. Thus, in line 12, the dê of Madhurántakadēva has a top, while the very next de of Kanharadeva has a vertical stroke proceding the letter da. The latter form, however, predominates, the exceptions being found as regards & in 11. 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, 21, 26, 29 and 31 and of 6 in 11. 1, 19, 31, and 32. Ai has been used only once, in line 8, and au twice, in lines 11 and 26, and in each case one of the top indtrås has been represented by a vertical stroke preceding the letter to which it is attached. The letters bha, dha, ra and ksha, invariably appear in their antiquated forms. The letter v is used throughout for b, and s for ś, except in the solitary instances of daśa in 1. 3 and of śri in 11. 12 and 29. Ja is ased for ya (11. 20, 24, and 27), Ti is used for the vowel ri in l. 8, and na for na in l. 6. In line 8 kanalal for kamala is a spelling which occurs in other inscriptions. It represents the actual pronunciation of the vernacular word pronunciation still kept up in the Chhattisgarh division, of which Bastar forms part.
The object of the inscription is to record the grant of Rajapura village, situated in the Bhramarakótya mandala, to one Medipôta or a Chhurikâra Médipôta and his descendants, together with 70 gadyanaka gold. The grant was made by the king Madhurantakadēva, who belonged to the Chhindaka family of the Någa (Cobra) race. The inscription is dated in the [Saka] year 987, in the Parâbhava samvatsara, on Wednesday of the bright fortnight of Karttika month. Although the tithi has not been given, there is a most minute description of the moment of the grant, the nakshatra being stated to be Anuradha, the yôga to be Saubhagya and the karana to be Gara. From these data the exact date Las been kindly calculated for me by Professor Kielhorn who says :
"The date for Saka 987 expired corresponds to Wednesday, the 5th October A.D. 1065. On this day the third tithi of the bright half of Kärttika ended 9 hours 17 minutes after mean sunrise, and the nakshatra was Anuradhi and the yoga Saubhagya. The second half of the tithi was the karana Gara. But the Jupiter's year is not quite correct. By the southern system it should have been Visvavası and by the northern luni-solar system Plavanga and by the northern mean sign system Kilaka. The mistake is the same as in the first Kanker plates."
The purpose for which the grant was made is somewhat obscure. I take it to be a compensation for supplying a victim for human sacrifice. Before proceeding to show how I arrive at this conclusion, it may be stated that in Bastar and the adjoining tracts human sacrifices were rampant about seventy years ago. It is notorious that human victims were offered to the goddess Dantêśvari, enshrined at Dantêwårå in the Bastar State. Colonel Macpherson of the Madras Army, who was appointed agent for the suppression of Meriah sacrifices and female infanticide in the hill tracts of Orissa, which Bastar adjoins, says* :-"In the worship of Tari Pennu or Earth Goddess the chief rite is homan sacrtfice. It is celebrated as a public oblation by tribes both at social festivals held periodically and when occasions demand extraordinary propitiation, sach as the occurrence of an extraordinary number of deaths by disease or by tigers, or should very many die in child-birth, or should the flocks or herds suffer largely from disease or from wild beasts, or should the greater crops threaten to fail, or the occurrence of any marked calamity to the families of the tribal chiefs. Victims are called Meriah and are acceptable only when they have been acquired by purchase or were born as such, that is, of a victim father. Victims are generally supplied to the Khonds by men of the two races called Panwå and Gahinga, who are attached in small numbers to almost every Khond village for the discharge of this and other peculiar offices. The Panwas purchase the victims without difficulty or kidnap
Compare Dr Grierson in J. R. A. 8. 1907, p. 1057. ? Gadyanaka is a weight -32 guíja. See YAjásválkys iii. 258. Above p. 129.
• J. E. 4. 8. Yol. XIII. (1852), p. 243 et reg.
