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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XII.
adopted was not purely mechanical. The publication of the Sonpur grant of Satrabhañjadeva! has thrown new light on the Bhañja dynasty of Orissa. As Babů Någēndra Nath Vasa's edition is not free from mistakes, I have edited both plates together. I obtained them, in 1911, through Mr. L. E. B. Cobden-Ramsay, I.C.S., Political Agent, Orissa Beudatory States, along with two other plates, one of which has already been edited by me in this Journal while the other one has been published by Baba Nagendra Nath Vasu.
The plates were found in the Feudatory state of Bandh in Orissa and “were turned up by the plough". Further details about their discovery are not available to me. At present the plates belong to the Feudatory Chief of Baudh. The first verse of both of these plates and many of the following ones correspond to those of the Sonpur grant of Satrubhañjaders. For the sake of distinction I have named the plates A and B.
A.-The Baudh Grant of Ranabhafijadēvs; the 54th year.
The inscription recording this grant is incised on three plates of copper measuring from 8} to 87" in length and from 4+" to 49" in breadth. They are held together by a ring, " thick and nearly 4" in diameter, of the same metal, passing through round holes about from the edges of the plates. The first plate only carries writing on the inner side. The royal seal, soldered to this ring, is round in shape and measures 21' in diameter. The impression of the seal consists of a crescerft above, the name of the king fri-Ranabhënjadēvasya in the middle, and a seated ball, facing the proper left, below. The plates with ring and seal weigh 232 tolas.
The characters of the inscription are more archaic in form than those of the Bamanghati grant of the same king or the new Sonpur grants of his father Satrubhañjadēva. They are more skin to the characters of the Gumsor grant of Nētsibhañja7 and the Orissa plates of Vidyadharabhañja. The inscription montions a king namod Gandhata in 1.5 as the king's father. In grant B in the same verse Satrubhajadēva is mentioned as the father of the king. Further on, 1. 12, it is mentioned that the king was born in the family sprung from the egg (vamba-prabhav-āndajah), with which we may compare the similar phrase used in the Sonpor grant of his father andaja-uansa-prabhaval). He is styled Paramamahēšvara Maharäja, 1. 12. He is styled Ranake in l. 17 of grant B of the year 26. He addresses the officers of the Khisljali mandala and informs them that the village of Konatinthi in the Khătiy. vishaya has been given to & Bbātaputra, the son of Vāgudēvs, whose name has been omitted through carelessness, who was an emigrant from A pilómulēri and an inhabitant of Amvägarasarā, belonged to the Rohita götra, the Rohita ashtaka, the Viśyāmitra pravara, the Chhāndoga charana and the Kauthuma fakha. The grant was written in the 54th year of the king in the dark half of Bhadrapada by the Bandhi-vigrahiya (Sandhi-vigralika) Himadatta, was incised by the Arkasali Gönsks and sealed with the Boyal seal.
I edit the inscription, which has already been published by Babu Nāgendranāth, from the original plate -
1 Above, Vol. XI, pp. 98 ff. . • The Archeological Survey of Maysrabhanja, Vol. I, pp. 162 .
Journ. Beng. As. Soc., Vol. XL, Part I, PP. 166 1.
Journ. Beng. As. Soc., Vol. VI, pp. 669 4. . loc. cit., pp. 135 ft.
Abone, pp. 158 .
jbidom, p. 129. . Above, Vol. XI, pp. 98 L. . ibidem, Vol. LVI, Part I, pp. 160 ff.
