________________
No. 4.]
projection, which is perhaps intended to represent a goddess. Below the goddess is a lamp stand above a svastika. The ring whose ends are secured at the bottom of the smaller seal measures 3" in diameter and " in thickness. Two sets of impressions of each of the two inscriptions were sent to Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar in August 1903.-V.V.]
TWO GRANTS OF INDRARAJA III.
25
As regards the find-spot of the plates, H. H. Dhruva, who first edited them, says :-" On the 6th of July 1881, as a Dubla servant of Mulji Khushal, Patel of Bagumrå, was furrowing the earth with the plough in his field, the ploughshare drew out of it these plates." This clearly shows that the plates were found at Bagumra, and consequently we must, as was first pointed out by Prof. Kielhorn, speak of them as Bagumrâ, and not as Nausârî, charters of A.D. 915.
Each of the two sets consists of three copper-plates, which are, to judge from the impressions, about 13" long and 9" broad. The inscription is engraved on the inner sides of the first and third plates, and on both sides of the second plate. The engraving is clear and well executed. The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets. For some of the forms of individual letters attention may be drawn to g in gatasya and svarggam, 1. 13; to ñ in lâñchhana, 1. 8, and rájñaḥ, 1. 13; to m in "m-anyat-pu°, 1. 17, °m-ánandi, 1. 37, and grámakúţa, 1. 46; to bh in bhupaḥ, 1. 28; and to s in samtarppand, 1. 57, so far as the first record is concerned; and to k in kant-endu-, 1. 1; to kh in famkha, 1. 29; to j in saras-ambhôja, l. 5, and jagati, 1. 7; and to bh in kaustubha, 1. 2, so far as the second record is concerned. The language is Sanskrit throughout. In respect of orthography, the following points may be noticed. The letter b is throughout denoted by the sign for v; consonants are doubled after r; visarga has been (permissibly) omitted once before the following sth in vaksha-sthala, 1. 2 of both grants; n has been substituted for i in kanchi, 1. 11 of No. II. ; visarga followed by s has been at least thrice changed to that letter in Ranavigrahas-samabhava, 1. 33, palakshitas-sôdramgaḥ, 1. 51, and lakshais-sårddhaiḥ, 1. 55 of the second record; anusvára followed by a nasal has been twice changed to that letter in sammánita, 1. 18 of No. I. and 1. 20 of No. II., and in gopanganánán nayana-, 1. 6 of No. I.; the dental nasal has been used instead of an anusvára before s in fansats, 1. 25 of No. I. and 1. 27 of No. II. Lastly, the same word is spelt láñchhana in No. I. 1. 8, but lámchhana in No. II. 1. 9.
the
Each of these two records registers the grant of a village to a Brahmana, made by the Rashtrakuta king Indra III. or, as he is described in lines 43-45 of No. II., ' the P.M.P., prosperous Nityavarshanarendradeva, who meditated on the feet of the P.M.P., the prosperous Akalavarshadeva,' i.e. his grandfather Krishna II. Indra III. had, when the grants were made, gone to Kurundaka from his capital Manyakheta for the patṭabandha festival. On that occasion he had himself weighed against gold, and, without coming out from the pan, gave away, together with twenty lakhs and a half of drammas, Kurundaka and other villages, granted afresh four hundred villages resumed by previous rulers, and finally bestowed the village of Tenna, according to No. II., on a Brahmana of the Lakshmana gôtra, a student of the Vâji-Madhyandina sákhá, and named Siddhapabhatta, the son of Sri-Vennapabhatta, originally of Pataliputra; and the village of Umvara (or Umbara), according to No. I., on a Brahmana of the same gotra and student of the same sákhá as the above grantee, but named Prabhâkarabhaṭṭa, the son of Ranapabhatta. The charters are dated, in words, on the 7th tithi of the bright fortnight of Phalguna of the Yuva-samvatsara, the Saka year 838 (expired), which corresponds to the 24th February A.D. 915.
After the introductory om svasti and the opening verse invoking the protection of Vishnu and Siva with which almost all the Rashtrakuta grants begin, we have verse 2 in praise of
1 See above, Appendix to Vol. VII. p. 15, note 5. For the meaning of this word see above, Vol. VII. p. 27, note 2.
