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No. 17.1
RAMATIRTHAM PLATES OF INDRAVARMAN.
No. 17.-RAMATIRTHAM PLATES OF INDRAVARMAN. BY PROFESSOR E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.; HALLE (SAALE).
133
These plates belong to a family of Pandits at Ramatirtham near Vizianagram. I edit the inscription on them from excellent ink-impressions received from Rao Sahib H. Krishna Sastri,1 who describes them as follows:
"These are three copper-plates measuring 8" in length and about 2" in breadth. The first and third bear writing only on their inner side. The plates are strung on an oval copperring measuring 3" by 3", which had not yet been cut when they were received in this office. Its ends are secured in a mass of copper, at the top of which is impressed an oval seal measuring 1" by 18" in diameter. The seal shows the faint figure of an advancing lion or tiger (facing the proper right), with its left fore-paw raised, neck erect, mouth wide-open, and the tail raised above the back, so as to end in a loop. The plates with ring and seal weigh 75 tolas."
The writing is well preserved throughout. The alphabet resembles that of the Chikkulla plates of Vikramendravarman II. (above, Vol. IV, No. 25); but, while in these t is distinguished from n by a loop, neither of them shows a loop here. The d of vadaka (1. 7) does not differ in shape from the dental d. The Dravidian letter is employed in Plaki (1. 6). A final form of t occurs in 11. 1, 13, 15, 17, and one of m in 11. 10 and 14.
The language is Sanskrit prose (with four verses of Vyasa and Manu quoted in 11. 12-15). The Sandhi rules are not always observed, and the sh of varsha (1. 16) is doubled in contravention of Panini, VIII, 4, 49. In karttavyamm-ajña (1. 10), final m is doubled between vowels.3 The wording of 11. 3-4 is incorrect, as the notes on the text will show. This is evidently due to the fact that the clerk who drafted the panegyrical portion copied or adapted an old office-record in a very careless manner.
The inscription records that the king (rajan) Indravarman (1. 6) granted to a Brāhmaṇa the village of Peruväḍaka (1. 6 f.) or Peruvataka (1.7) in the Plaki-rashtra (1.6). The same district is mentioned as Plaki-vishaya and Palaki-vishaya in two inscriptions of the Eastern Chalukya king Vishnuvardhana I.
Indravarman was the son of the king (rajan) Vikramendra (1. 5) and the grandson of the Mahārāja Madhavavarman (1. 2) of the family of the Vishnukundin kings (1. 3). This short pedigree establishes his identity with the Maharaja Indrabhaṭṭarakavarman whose son, the Maharaja Vikramendravarman II., issued the Chikkalla plates, and who was the son of Vikramendravarman I. and the grandson of the Maharaja Madhavavarman of the Vishnukupdin family. As regards this family, Professor Kielhorn has suggested that its name may be connected with Vinukonda in the Kistna district.5
While the Chikkulla plates were issued from Lendulara (i.e. Dendulära near Ellore), Indravarman issued the subjoined grant from a place named Puranisangams (1. 1). In both grants Madhavavarman and Vikramendravarman II., respectively, is stated to have been a
1 He has already noticed the plates in his Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1908-09, p. 110.
Cf. the description of the seal of the Chikkulla plates, above, Vol. IV, p. 194.
Cf. Professor Kielhorn's note 4, above, Vol. IV, p. 194.
Above, Vol. IX, p. 317 f.
Above, Vol. IV, p. 195 and note 1.
This is the correct spelling of the modern name; see above, Vol. V, Additions and Corrections, p. v, and Vol. VI, p. 159.
