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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XII.
:
The plates were three in number, each measuring about 111" in width by 81" high; and they were strung on a ring having a seal with the representation of a boar, the crest of the Chalukyas. The plates were made with raised edges to protect the inscription on them: and the writing is well preserved almost all through; so far, at any rate, that no part of the record is now doubtful. An apparent crack down the middle of plate ii b is not due to damage to the original plate the ink-impressions were very old and brittle, and this one was found torn down the middle they were mounted on paper for subsequent preservation; but, even so, they remained very fragile, and quite recently, shortly before reproduction, a small piece broke away and was lost, from this same side, ii b, causing the gap near the beginning of lines 65 and 66.The alphabet is a well-shaped one of the Northern type, resembling that of the Kauthem plates (Ind. Ant. vol. xvi, p. 21), with letters of an average height of about "; its affinities are best seen on plate 5 of Bühler's Paleographie.-The language is Sanskrit throughout, with the exception of the Kanarese phrase gandarol-ganda on line 60. The gerund nirddhatya (line 66), from the same root as the substantive dhati, is worth noting.-As regards orthography, it may be noted that v is always written for b, and I have left this spelling without correction in my transcription. There is considerable vacillation in the writing of consonants following r, which are sometimes left simple and sometimes doubled, and in respect of the nasals of the third and fourth series preceding consonants of the same groups, which are sometimes represented by anusvara and sometimes given in full. The dental s is often confused with the palatal s. The upadhmaniya breathing is in most cases represented by a letter resembling sh prefixed to a following initial p.
The purport of the inscription is to record the grant of a village. Its first part (lines 1-61) is the well-known poem narrating the pedigree of the Western Chalukya kings, which is here carried down as far as the reign of Jagadēkamalla-Jayasimha II. I have already published a text of this composition in the recension of the Nilgunda plates, p. 142 ff. above, and there have referred to the variants supplied by the present document; it is therefore needless to deal further with the subject here. The second part (line 61 to the end) is a deed of gift granting the village of Maḍadujharu, in the three-hundred of Karațikallu and the two-thousand of Eḍedore, to a certain Vasudevärya, son of Revanarya and grandson of Sridhara, a Brahman of the Kausika Gotra and Bahvṛicha Sakha, born at Mudunira, in the county of Pagalați. This is followed by the usual verses denouncing infraction of such grants, etc., and a note recording the name of the scribe, Maipayya, an official attached to the service of Prölarya, the Commander of the Forces and Carator of Records,
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The details of the date of this record (line 64-65) are the Raktakshin samvatsara, Saka 946 expired; the full-moon day of Vaisakha; Adityavara (Sunday). On this Dr. Fleet gives me the following note :-"As a Chaitrādi lunar year according to the southern lunisolar system of the cycle, the Raktakshin or Raktaksha samvatsara coincided with the Saka year 947 current (946 expired) also taken as a Chaiträdi year, and began on 13 March, A.D. 1024. The given details answer quite regularly to Sunday, 28 April, A.D. 1024, on which day the fullmoon tithi of Vaisakha ended at about 15 hours 31 minutes after mean sunrise (for Ujjain)."
In the table on the opposite page I give a concordance of the introductory verses in the four records of this class which have now been published, namely:
1. The Kauṭhem plates of A.D. 1009; Indian Antiquary, vol. xvi, p. 21:
2. The present Miraj plates of A.D. 1024 :
3. The Yewür inscription of A.D. 1077; p. 269 above: and
4. The Nilgunda plates of A.D. 1087 and 1123; p. 142 ff. above.
There are two other records, on stone, which follow the same draft in the main. Of these one is the inscription of A.D. 1091 at Alur in the Gadag taluka of the Dharwar District, noticed by Dr. Fleet in Ind. Ant., vol. viii, p. 21; the other is an inscription of A.D. 1122 or 1123 at Davangere in the Chitaldroog District, Mysore, of which a preliminary treatment has been published in Epi. Carn., vol. xi, Dg. 1. These remain to be examined in detail.
