Epigraphia Indica Vol 12

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

Page 60

No. 8.]
BELAVA COPPER-PLATE OF BHOJAVARMADEVA.
No. 8.- BELAVA COPPER-PLATE OF BHOJAVARMADEVA. THE FIFTH YEAR.
BY RADHAGOVINDA BASAK, M.A.; RAJSHAHI. This plate was purchased by Mr. Pramathanātha Datta, B.A., Assistant Settlement Officer, in the month of June, 1912, at a village, named Bēlāva, situated on the northern boundary of Rapgadj Thana, in the Mahēšvardi Pargana of the Nārāinganj Sub-Division of the Dacca district in the Presidency of Bengal, where it was discovered by an illiterate Muhammadan in April, 1912, in digging & plot of hard reddish land in the precincts of his cottage. A prominent mark, about half-an-inch deep, was accidently cut into the top-edge on the right-hand side of the plate by the spade of the villager as he was digging. An imperfect reading of this plate with a faulty translation was published at Daccal but without any fac-simile. I edit the inscription from a pboto which I took when the plate was kindly placed in my hands for two days only by Mr. Datta for decipherment. I could not get a further opportunity of comparing the photo with the original plate.
The plate measures about 9" broad by 101" high. It had a seal with the representation of Vishnu's wheel (cf. srimad-Vishnu-chakra-mudrayā, 1. 48), at the top; but the impress of the sacred wheel was completely scraped off by the finder of the plate, who thought the plate was made of gold. So, it is difficult now to say if the name of the king was incised therein. The plate is inscribed on both sides, the obverse side containing 26 lines of writing, and the reverse side 25 lines. The engraver's name is not mentioned. The writing is generally in an excellent state of preservation except in lines 12-14, and 17-21, where the plate has suffered from corrosion, which has rendered a few letters indistinct and illegible. The size of the letters throughout is about $" with the exception of those occurring in the first two lines on the reverse side, where they are a little larger than the rest. The inscription is written in the northern characters of the 11th century A.D. The anusvāra has been denoted in two ways, viz. by a point above the horizontal top-line, as in Papatyan, l. 1, and by the ordinary Bengali amusvāra sign of modern times as in nāyanan, 1. 1. The sign of visarga has been omitted twice, in the words siddhi (1. 1), and frimad-Bhoja (1. 26). Some letters also have been omitted, very likely through oversight on the part of the soribe or the engraver, in lines 18, 22, 23, 28, 37, 39 and 43. The sign of avagraha has not been used at all. Orthography also is not faultless throughout. The only point of orthography that calls for any remark is that although the letters, ta, ya, na, ma, and ga have been doubled after r, the letter va in this position remains single, except in the words - Auruva- and Yajurvēda- (1. 42). The language of the inscription is Sanskrit.
The inscription opens with on siddhi[h*) and has 15 verses on the obverse side, in the first five of which the eulogist Purushottama (cf. v. 15) describes the mythological ancestors of the Yadu family from which the Varmans traced their origin. From the first three verses we get the mythological genealogy of these ancestors of the Yada family in the following order :-(1) Svayambhu (Brahma), (2) Atri, (3) Chandra, (4) Budha, (5) Purăravas, (6) Ayu, (7) Nahusha, (8) Yayati and (9) Yadu. In verse 4, Krishna, the chief actor of the Mahabharata,' is said to have descended from the family of Yadu. Verse 3 informs is that the Varmans were the 'kinsmen of Hari' (Krishna) and were well-versed in the Vēdas and skilled in warfare. They are described to have cocupied Simhapura, probably the same place as Sihapura, which is mentioned in the Mahāvansa, vi, 35 ff., es situated in Lālaraţtha, s.e. Rādbā. Verge 6 gives us the name of the tirst Varman as Vajravarman, who is described to * The Dacca Ropiew, Vol. II, No. 4 (July, 1912).
[We kuow of princes with names ending in oarman, who ruled in Sinhapura, and who were kings of Kalinga. See above, p. 4.-8. K.