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No. 26.)
RATAUL PLATE OF CHARADADEVA.
Third Plate; Second Side. 32 va(pa)-ya[shti] [r] vin-aiva sātrāpa samāsasañja | Yasy33 nvaye bhūpatir=ēsha jātaḥ yaśo-gajal ity=āhita34 räja-simbah [1] Yasmina (n) vinikabipya dhuran-dharitryah 35 susvā(shva)pa värddhau mudito Mukundaḥ || Yasy=āvarodha36 stana-chandapānām praksbālanād=vāri-vihara-kalo | Chi37 trötpalā Svarpavati[mo] gat=āpi (1) Gang-ormmi-Ba[m] saktam-iv-a. 38 vibhāti 11
No. 26.-RATAUL PLATE OF CHAHADADEVA.
BY DAYA RAM SAHNI, M.A. The fragmentary copper-plate which is discussed in this note was acquired for the Director-General of Archeology in 1911 by Mr. J. R. Pearson, I.C.S., District Officer of Meerut. The circumstances which led to its discovery were described in a forwarding note. It is stated that this inscribed fragment belonged to a copper-plate which was found, some thirty years ago, by a resident of the village of Rataul, Tahsil Baghpat, District Meerat, while he was excavat. ing a piece of land belonging to him in order to dig out old bricks. The plate, which is raid to have been imbedded in a domical structure nine or ten feet below the surface, was broken to pieces by the diggers and all the other fragments are said to have been lost. This is much to be regretted, for, as it will appear from the sequel, the inscription incised on the plate was of considerable interest.
The surviving fragment is deposited in the Museum of Archæology at Delhi, and measures 101" in width at the top by 3" in height. It is complete only on the upper side, but a rough estimate of the total breadth of the fragment may be formed with the help of the missing portions of the verses that remain. It is impossible, however, to find out the entire height or the total number of lines as it is not known what portion of the plate is broken off at the bottom.
The extant portion of the document consists of parts of six lines. Of the seventh line the top bars of some letters and superscript vowel strokes of three syllables remain. The inscription is engraved in the Nāgari characters of the beginning of the 13th century A.D. The height of the letters in the first line varies from is excluding the vowel-marks to 1" with them, and from to l' in the remaining five lines.
In respect of orthography we observe that the words have been spelt with accuracy throughout with the exception of the omission of the anusvāra before dur in kulaikēdurs, in line 3 and the substitution of să for să in -satkrita in line 2. No distinction has been made between the letters v and b. It is noteworthy that the rules of sandhi have been nowhere disregarded. The doubling of chh in achchhēttur (line 2) and of n in svasminn=ālānito (line 4), etc., show that the author and the scribe were well versed in grammar. The consonants before and after have been doubled in some cases and left unaltered in others, in accordance with the optional character of the rule concerned. The avagraha is not indicated.
The language of the inscription, as far as it goes, is metrical Sanskrit with the exception of the first line. The remaining five lines contain portions of six verses which were numbered. The first verse, which is in the Aryā metre, covers the entire extant portion of line 2. Of its
1 We must scan gaj-ēty.
* cf. Raghuvansa, VI, 48.
