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272
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
VOL. IX.
the proper right margin of each plate. The ring, which had already been cut when the plates came into my hands, is between " and " thick and about 3' in diameter, and on to it is soldered a roughly circular metal seal, between 14" and 11" in diameter. The seal contains in relief on a countersunk surface, in the upper half, a couching lion facing to the proper right, and in the lower half the legend
fri-Vidyadharabhaftjadevasya
in northern characters which are between" and "high.
Before the plates were used for the grant now engraved on them, they had already served for another grant, the four last lines of which, though faint, are almost completely legible on the first si le of the first plate, and of the writing of which more or less distinct traces remain also on the other sides of the plates. The characters of this earlier grant belong to what I have elsewhere! called the Ganjam variety of the northern alphabet; and the lines with which it ended, compared with the end of the Gumsûr grant of Nêtribbañja, published in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. Vol. VI. p. 669 f. and Plate xxxiii., would seem to show that the grant was issued by a chief of the same family. The four lines (on the first side of the first plate), so far as I am able to read them, are:
L. 1. Svayam-Adishto
rajna
ditakô=tra
[Mâr]tamḍaḥ ||
Likhitam-cha3
Båndhivi
2. grabika-Arkka[dêvêna] || Lâñchhitam [râ]jñî-śrî-Manikya-mahîdê3. vya || Utkirppam ch-Aksha[4]li-Kumara[dattêna] || 5samvat 4. die... ||
The grant now recorded on these plates is engraved on the second side of the first plate and on both sides of the two others. The engraving is deep and well done, and in a perfect state of preservation. In three places (in lines 10, 22 and 35) there is some doubt about the actual wording of the text, either because the engraver altered what he had originally engraved, or because portions of the letters of the earlier grant spoken of above are mixed up with the new writing; the rest may be read without any difficulty. The size of the letters is about". The characters belong to that variety of the northern alphabet which we find, e.g. on the Baguḍa plates of Madhavavarman, treated of above, Vol. VII. p. 101 f. Of the consonant signs the most characteristic are those for h7 (e.g. in Harasya Sésháhér-, 1. 4), t and tt (e.g. in prakata-, 1. 9, and -vighaffitá, 1. 6), and n (e.g. in -vana-prána, 1. 1), of which the last, in combination with palatals, also serves for the palatal nasal (e.g. in Bhañjamala°, 1. 14, -uktañ-cha, 1. 27, and lanchhitam, 1. 35). Among other conjuncts attention may be drawn to the signs for ksh, gg, gbh,
samoat (?) Magha-tudi Bead likhitan-cha.
1 See above. Vol. VII, p. 101.
The published text, which was furnished to Mr. Prinsep by Kamalakanta Vidyalamkara, is quite untrustworthy. According to Mr. Prinsep's lithograph of Lieutenant Kittoe's copy, the passage with which we are concerned here, so far as I can make it out, would be vayam-ddishtó rájnd datakó-tra bhatta-sri-Stambhadtvaḥ Likhitan-cha adadhivigrahind Kd[kka]kina atkirana[] ch-dkshasdli-Durggadéréna lañohitam
Bead grabik-Arkka".
Bead sanoat; the three aksharas by which this word is followed are illegible.
This di is followed by a sign which possibly is a letter-numeral for 10; and before the sign of punctuation there is another sign which looks like the symbol for 6. The two signs show fairly well in the accompanying facsimile. I may add that there are letter-numerals also in the last line of the Bamanghatt grant of Ranabhanja, published with a facsimile in Jours. As. 8oo. Beng. Vol. XL. Part I. p. 165 f., and in lines 35 and 36 of one of the Gafijam grants of Dandimahadevi, above, Vol. VI. p. 139 and Plate.
1 The same sign for A (which is not given by our paleographic Tables) we find in the Buguda plates of Madhavavarman, in the Gumsår plates of Netribhanja, and on the second side of the plate of Dandlabadevi, above, Vol. VI. p. 188. It was also used in the grant originally engraved on these plates. A similar form of Awe and in several varieties of the southern alphabet.
