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No. 7.]
PLATES OF VIJAYA-DEVAVARMAN.
"The plates belong to the Head Assistant Collector of Narsapur, in whose office they have been lying for a long time. The person from whom they were origivally obtained is not known."
"The copper-plates are four in number. Their length is 54 inches, and their height 24 inches at the ends and 24 inches in the middle. Their margins are not raised into rims. The ring was cut by me (viz. Mr. Venkayya) for the first time. Its diameter is 2 inches, and its thickness slightly over inch. The ends of the ring are secured at the base of an oval seal, measuring 2) by 14 inches. The seal is all but obliterated; but a faint trace of some quadruped-perbaps a tiger can be seen."
The inscription on the plates is carefally engraved and on the whole in a state of very good preservation. The alphabet resembles that of the three grants of Simhavarman and of the plates of Vijaya-Nandivarman. But neither t nor n bave a loop at the left. As in the Hirabadagalli plates, the former is distinguished by a slight ourve at the right; compare e.g. the ta of etassa (1. 8) with the na of vayanena (1. 7). As first members of a consonant group both look the game; see the ttå of achchhétta and the ntá of ch=anumanta (1.17). Final forms of t and m, followed by a mark of ponctuation which looks like & right angle, occur at the end of lines 17 and 19. The numerical symbol 20 occurs in line 11, the symbols 3 and 10 are used in the date (1. 15), and the plates iia, ii.b, iii.a, iii.b and iv. are numbered consecutively, like the pages of a modern book," with the symbols 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on the left margin; on the first plate the sacred syllable on occupies the place of the figure 1.
The language is Prakrit prose, with the exception of the last plate which bears two of the customary Sanskrit verses. While in the cave inscriptions every double consonant is expressed by a single letter, the orthography of the proge part of the subjoined plates agrees in this respect with that of the literary Prakrit and of the British Musenm plates of Chârudêvi. In samuvachchhara (1. 14) v is donbled after anusvära. The language of the new plates is more archaic than that of the literary Praksit in one important point : single consonants between vowels generally remain unchanged. Thus k is preserved in bhattdraka (1.3); kh in pamukha (1.7); g in bhagavato (1.1); ; in vijaya (11. 1, 6, 14), yajin (1. 5) and mahárája (1. 6); t in bhagavato (1.1), anujjhata (1. 2 f.), bhanitavva and eta (1.8), pariharitavua (1.13 f.); th in ratha (1.2); d in pâda (11.2 and 3) and padesa (1. 10); dh in medha (1. 5). But elision and ya-sruti have taken place in addhiya (1. 11) for ardhika, miyattana (1. 10) for nivartana, vayana (1. 7) for vachana, and at the beginning of the enclitic cha in duvaggana ya (1. 12) and pariharitavvo ya (1. 13 f.).7 The word Pausha (1. 15) appears in its Sanskrit form.8 Dental + occurs in anujjhdta (1. 2 f.), Sálaskdyana (1.4), yajino (1. 5), gharatthana (11. 11 and 12) = Sansksit grihasthana, and lingual n in bhånitavua (1. 8), Ganasamma (1. 9), duvaggana and rakkhana (1.12), samanatta (1. 13) = Sanskpit samdjñapta, and samvuachchharani (1. 14). Both , and n appear in vayanena (1.7), niyattanán[0] (1. 10) and manussä nam (1. 11).10 Among the remaining Präksit words may be noted the two numerals terasa (1. 15) and visan (1. 11)," and of other inflected words the ablative Vergipura (1.1), the genitives Devavammassa (1. 6) and Ganasammassa (1. 9), the two differently formed locatives Eldre (1. 7) and padesamhi (1. 10), and the instrumental pariharehi (1. 13).
The inscription is dated on the tenth tithi of the dark fortnight of Pausha in the thirteenth year (in words and figures, 1. 14 f.) of the Maharaja Vijaya-Dévavarman (1. 6), who issued
See above, Vol. VIII. p. 160.
Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 176 ft. Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 2 f. Another instance, in which the single pages of a grant are numbered, are the British Museum plates of Charuddvi; see above, Vol. VIII. p. 144.
Above, Vol. VIII. p. 144 and note 5. Compare Prof. Pinchel's Prakrit grammar, $189. Compare ibid. 184.
Compare ibid. & 614.
. Compare ibid. & 88. Compare ibid. 224 1 Ibid. $$ 443 and 445.
13 Compare ibid. 402.
