________________
No. 40.)
PATIARELLA GRANT OF MAHARAJA SIVARAJA.
285
from all taxes,-has been sanctioned by us, for the increase of the religious merit of (our) parents and of ourself. Being aware of this you should be obedient to their commands, and should dwell in happiness rendering in proper manner (their) share of the enjoyment.
And he enjoins upon futare Xing:.-The ancients whose minds are fixed upon religion gay that the virtue that arises from the preservation (of a grant) is greater than that which arises from making a grant); therefore your mind should verily incline to preserve land that has been given to a Brahman of very pure family and holy learning. Therefore this gift should be preserved by you also.
And they cite on this point the verses that were sung by Vyasa :-Gold is the first offspring of fire; the earth belongs to the God Vishọn and (cows are) the daughters of the 800: (therefore the three worlds are given by him who gives gold, and a cow and land).
No. 40.- PATIAKELLA GRANT OF MAHARAJA SIVARAJA
[GUPTAJ SAMVAT 283.
By R. D. BANERJI, This inscription, which is edited here for the first time, was discovered several years ago by a possant in a cornfield in the zamîndâri of Patiåkellà in the district of Cuttack in Orissa. It is the property of an Oriya Bråhman, who, I hear, regularly worships it. The Raja of Pațiškella made it over to Babu Nagendra Nåtha Vasa, the Honorary Archeological Surveyor to the Mayürbhaõja Estate. Nagendra Babu made it over to me some six or seven months ago for decipherment.
The inscription is engraved on a single plate of copper, measuring 7" by 21". To the left there is an oval projection, 11" long, to which a lump of brass or bell metal is attached. On the top of this lump there is an oval cavity, showing traces of the seal. Bat no letters or symbols are discernible at present. Both sides of the plate are inscribed. Altogether there are eighteen lines of writing in this grant. The writing was fairly well-executed, but its preservation is not very good. One corner of the plate is missing and has carried away portions of the dates with it. Fortunately the date can be made out correctly from the portions still remaining. In this grant the date was given twice. First of all we read in the second line tryadhikäsittyuttara .. . and secondly at the end of the eighteenth line Samvat 200 . . Thus tens and hundreds are all fairly certain. I am indebted to Dr. Koaow for the reading of the symbol for two hundred.
The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets and are in every respect similar to those of the Muqdéóvart inscription of Udayasena, from the Shahabad district. The Mundesvari inscription is dated in the (Harsha) year 30 (635 A.D.). The peculiarities of the characters of our grant are as follows:(a) Among the ligatures the only noticeable feature is to be found in the d mark, which
is expressed in two different ways while attached to the same letter na. Cf.
privilege of importance that the head of the district was not allowed to interfere with the granted land ; in othor words, he was not allowed to collect labourers or to demand supplies, etc., on behalf of the State."
1 These words which must have been engraved in the third plate bave been applied to make sense
* The Mandêsvart inscription has been found in two pieces. The second portion was presented to the Indian Museum so far back as 1801. The first portion containing the date was found among the debris around the temple and sent to the Indian Museum in 1904. For the Maodeśvari teinple, see List of Ancient Monumente in Bengal (1895), p. 370. Dr. Bloch has referred to this inscription twice. See Annual Report of the Archaological Survey, Bengal Circle, 1902-03, p. 20, and Annual Report of the Archeological Survey of India, 190.3-03, Pp. 42-43. The inscription will be published below, pp. 289 and f1.
