Epigraphia Indica Vol 12

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

Page 52

No. 7.]
VADNER PLATES OF BUDDHARAJA.
Bodhasvamin of Vatanagara. One funny thing about this grant is that Nana believes it to be a sanad of Pațilki. He is very particular and hardly allows anybody to have a look at it. The plates are substantial. The first of them measures from 101" to 10" long by 8" broad including the rims. Excluding them, the length is 103" to 10" and the breadth from 73" to 7". The second measures about 10" long by from 83" to 8" broad including the rims. Excluding them the length is from 10" to 10" and the breadth from 7" to 7". The plates have two holes from "to" in diameter for the insertion of the two original rings, which have been lost. Whether there was any seal or not I cannot confidently say. There are however no traces of one, just as is the case with the Sarsavņi plates. When the grant came under my notice, the Vaḍner plates were held together by two thin rings recently made. The edges of the plates have been raised into rims, so as to protect the inscription. Either of them bears writing on the inner side only. The second plate is a little broken at the right rim where line 28 ends. The weight of the plates is 129 tolas, without the rings. The letters are very deeply and well cut. They do not show through on the reverse sides at all. Some are, however, damaged and some have been completely destroyed by verdigris. I have restored the damaged and lost letters and words by means of the Abhöna and the Sarsavai plates, mentioned below.
31
The alphabet very closely resembles that of the Sarsavni plates of Buddharaja 1 (the only peculiarity worth noticing about the Vaḍner grant being that the a-strokes are not brought so far down as in the Sarsavņi plates), and closely to that of the Abho pa or rather Abhöne plates and the Valabhi inscriptions. The characters are, therefore, of the regular type of the period and locality to which the record relates. The numerical symbols for 300, 60 10 and 3 occur in the date portion in line 34. The language is Sanskrit. Five of the usual benedictive and imprecatory verses are quoted from line 27 to line 32. The remainder of the inscription is in prose. As regards orthography we may note the doubling of a consonant before y in -ddhyāta-, 1. 14; -mäddhyandina-, 1. 21. In a similar way the consonants following r are usually doubled; thus -ärkkärṇṇava-, 1. 20; -sarggen, 1. 23; svargge, 1. 27; dirggha-, 1. 24; -ärjjanam, 1. 8.; -örjjita-, 1. 10; narendrair-ddanani, 1. 31; -darppa-, 1. 16; -õtsarppaṇarttham, 1. 22; nirbbhukta-, 1. 31; pañchabhir-mmaha-, 1. 26; dharmma-, 11. 9, 11, 12; dharmmarttha-, 1. 31; gambhiryyavati, 1. 2; -siddhir-yyena, 1. 6; dhairyyaśauryyasthairyy-, 1. 15; -durllanghe, 1. 2; purvva-, 1. 30; sarvu-, 11. 17, 19, 20; bahubhir-vvasudha, 1. 29. On the other hand we find kirtyä, 1. 3, and, of course, varsha-, 1. 27. The class nasal and not the Anuavara is commonly used in the interior of a word, the only real exception being -bhamgaya, 1. 8. A final sibilant before a sibilant is commonly assimilated; thus upētas-sampanna-, 1. 5; dharmmas-freyö-, 1. 9; etc,, but -Mähētvarah fri-, 11. 14, 17. The Jihvamaliya is used in -parak-kalanka-, -rahitah-kula-, 1. 4; the Upadhmaniyu in -vigrahaḥ-parabhi-, 1. 8; -śrih-pra-, 1. 10; -pradaḥ- pūrvv-, 1. 13; -ddhyātaḥ= parama-, 1. 14; -karah-pra-, 1. 17; -mantavyah-palayitavyas-, 1. 25. The use of sh instead in -kälinash-putra-, 1. 21, is simply a miswriting. Before sth a final s has been dropped in accordance with the Värttika on Pan. VIII, iii, 36 in -sētu sthitinam-, 1, 16. Instead of ttv we find to in -satv-, 1. 2; is used for ñ in -chanchalam, 1. 24; n for m in pradhvansa-, 1. 16; ri for ri in prakriti-, 1, 5; -kripaṇa-, 1. 13, superfluous in has been added in mahimamṭām, 1, 30. The rules of Samdhi have sometimes been neglected; compare pratishthapayita aty, 1. 12; vriddhaye uda-, 1. 23. Most instances occur at the end of a line; thus yathavat, 1. 5, before atmany 1. 6; -tanam, 1. 12, before un-, 1. 13; syat, 1. 26, before ity, 1. 27; cha, 1. 27, before anu-, 1. 28; likhitam, 1. 33, before idam, 1. 34.
The inscription is one of Buddharaja, the son of Sankaragana, the son of Krishnaraja of the family of the Katachchuris. In the Aihole inscription the same form Kaṭachchuri occurs.3 2 See Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, pp. 296 ff.
1 See Ep. Ind., Vol. VI, pp. 294 ff.
Ep. Ind., Vol. VI, p. 5, line 6, where we read avaptavän-yo ranaranga-mandiri Kafachchuri-tri-läjana. parigraham.