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No. 18.]
RAMPAL COPPER-PLATE OF SRICH ANDRADEVA.
The plate measures 9"x8". At the top of it, in the middle, is attached a seal, which has, in its upper part, the emblem of the Buddhist "Wheel of Law", the Dharmma-[cha*]kra (1. 31) with two deers in couchant posture on both sides of it. Just below the wheel and above the legend fri-Srichandra[de]vah, something like the emblem of a small conch-shell is seen. Beneath the legend again, the representation of a digit of the moon, with floral decorations on the three other sides of it, may be marked. This crescent, it seems, indicates the moon from whom the donor and his ancestors are said to have descended. All these symbols and decorations together with the legend are in relief. The most notable feature of this seal is that it resembles to a great extent the seall of the copper-plate grants of the Pala kings of Bengal, who were also Buddhists in religion.
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The plate is in an excellent state of preservation and has not suffered much from corrosion as its edges were raised into rims; but the depth of the letters has been impaired by nitric acid which the owner of it confessed to have applied in order to clean it; and as the result of this, some of the letters look blurred, especially on the reverse side. The plate is inscribed on both sides, the obverse containing 28 lines of writing and the reverse 12 lines only.
The characters of the inscription belong to a variety of alphabets used in the eastern part of Northern India in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The letters are engraved with considerable skill, and they look well-shaped, and are cut clearly and deeply. The size of the letters throughout is nearly inch. Some spelling mistakes occur, due, likely, to the ignorance or oversight of the scribe or the engraver. The errors of omission have been pointed out in the foot-notes of the text.
As regards orthography, the letter ba is throughont expressed by the sign for va; the guttural nasal is used, instead of anusvära, before the palatal sibilant, in varise, 1. 3, and #amritakarānsuḥ, 1. 6; m has often been retained before va, instead of being changed to anusvāra, e.g..-ériyām-vikhyātō, 1.4, shasthim-varsha-, 1. 35, and paradattam=va, 1. 36. It may also be noted that almost all consonants are doubled after r, except ya, sa, and ha; cf. nivesitarir yasah, 1.14; -paryanta, 1. 24; darse-, 1. 7, and yatharhain, 1. 22. The consonant ra in such position is sometimes seen doubled and sometimes left single; cf. -sarvvadhikrita, 1. 19, -sarvva-pida, 1. 25, -udaka-pūrvakam, 1. 28, sarvair-, 1. 31 f., and vahubhir-vafsu"]dha, 1. 37. The sign of avagraha is employed in three places, in -Purnṇachandro 'bhavat, 1. 4, -jivino 'dhyaksha-, 1. 21, and pradatta 'smabhih, 1. 31; but it is omitted elsewhere; thus, dharmmo=py=asau, 1. 1, and darse-sya, 1. 7.
The language is correct Sanskrit throughout. The inscription, after the words Ōm svasti with which it commences, has 8 verses, followed by prose, at the end of which again we find five of the usual imprecatory and benedictive verses. At the end of the document we find a sign of interpunction, consisting of a circle, of the size of the letters, between double bars.
The plate is not dated, nor does it mention the engraver's or the scribe's name. There is no separate endorsement of the king or any of his chief officers at the close of the deed, as we find in some of the Bengal plates.
The object of the inscription is to record the grant of rent-free land, in the village of Nehakashṭhi of the Nanya-mandala in the prosperous Paundra-bhukti, (1. 17), made by the devout Saugata (worshipper of Sugata, Buddha) Paramesvara Paramabhaṭṭāraka Mahārājädhiraja, the glorious Srichandradeva, who meditates on the feet of the Mahārājā. dhiraja Trailōkyachandradeva (11. 15-16), to a Brahmapa, named Pitaväsaguptasarman, the son of Sumangalagupta, the grandson of Varahagupta, and the great-grandson of Makkara
1 See for instance, the seal of the Khalimpur plate of Dharmapaladeva, printed opposite to p. 244, Ep. Ind., Vol. IV.
