Epigraphia Indica Vol 12

Author(s): Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 19

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XII.
No. 2.--BRIHATPROSHTHA GRANT OF UMAVARMAN.
BY PROFESSOR E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.; HALLE (SAALE).
Like the Rāgolu plates of Saktivarman (No. 1 above), the copper-plates bearing the subjoined inscription belong to Mr. G. Ramadas of Vizagapatam and were sent by him to the late Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya, who forwarded to me two sets of ink-impressions of them. Mr. Ramadas writes that the plates “were obtained from a smith in the Palakonda taluka. Nothing more is known of them." Mr. Venkayya sent me the following description of the original plates :
« Three copper-plates of four sides. Average length 7%";' height 31" (at the margins) and 31" (in the middle). The plates were held together by a ring (out by me for taking impressions), which appears to have been twisted out of its original shape, which was probably circular. The highest diameter now is 51' and the lowest 47" The ends of the ring are secured at the bottom of an oval seal measuring 2" by 3". The depression of the seal bears in relief a legend in four lines, of which the last seems to be ra[jo]mavarmasya. The other three lines are not distinct."
To judge from the impressions, the inscription is much damaged; but, with the exception of the name of the writer in l. 16, every word can be made out with the help of the context. The alphabet is of an early Southern type. The jihvāmültya is used in l. 1, the upadhmāniya in l. 7, and the numerical symbols 20 and 30 in l. 15. The language is Sanskrit prose (with three verses of Vyasa quoted in 11. 11-15).
Both the alphabet and the phraseology of the grant closely resemble those of the Komarti plates of the Maharaja Chandavarman. This king may have belonged to the same family as Mahäräjömavarman, the donor of the subjoined grant. For both kings issued their edict from Simhapura or Sihapurs and bore the epithets" lord of Kalinga" and "devoted to the feet of his father." The second portion of the designation Maharajómavarman probably contains the word Uma, one of the names of Siva's consort, the final vowel of which has been shortened in accordance with Påņini, VI, 3, 63.
The ingcription records that Umavarman granted the village of Bțihatpröshthi (1.2) to the Brahmana Haridatta (1. 4). This person may be identical with another Haridatts, who is mentioned in the last line of the insoription as the father of its writer. The date of the grant fell into the year 30 (1. 15) (of the king's reign).
As stated before, Chandavarman and Umavarman resided at Sithapura or Sihapura. According to Singhalese inscriptions the two kings Nissankamalla and Sähasamalla, the second of whom ascended the throne in A.D. 1200, were sons of the Kalinga king Goparāja of Simhapura. The Buddhist chronicle Mahavamsa (chapter 59, verse 29) states that Tildkasundari, a queen of Vijayabahu I. (who is reported to have reigned from A.D. 1054 to 1109) was a princess of Kalinga, and that three relatives of hers, one of whom was named Madhukanpava, came to Ceylon from Sihapura (id. verse 46). Simhapura is perhaps identical with the modern Singupuram between Chicacole and Narasannapěta.
1 Above, Vol. IV, p. 142 ff. · Professor E. Müller's Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon, Nos. 148 and 166. J. R. A. S., 1909, pp. 327 and 381.
J. R. A. S., 1913, p. 519 f. This name reminds us of the Eastern Ganga king Madhu-Kimarnavs; see above, Vol. IV, p. 186 and the Table facing it.
• Above, Vol. IV, p. 143.