Epigraphia Indica Vol 12

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

Page 92

No. 13.]
NIDHANPUR COPPER PLATES OF BHASKARAVARMAN.
No. 13.-NIDHANPUR COPPER PLATES OF BHASKARAVARMAN. BY PROFESSOR PADMANATHA BHATTACHARYA VIDYAVINODA, M.A., GAUHATI.
On the 29th December 1912, a Musalman cultivator of the village Nidhanpur, in Panchakhanda, Sylhet, while levelling down a mound for making a buffaloe-shed, discovered these copper plates, fastened together by a ring, with a heavy seal shaped like the head of a ladle. He thought that the plates contained some information about hidden treasure, but when he brought it to a local land-holder, the latter at once recognized the whole as a copper-plate grant and sent it to be photographed to Silchar. Through the kindness of Babu Dinanath Das, B.A. of the Commissioner's office, Silchar, the plates were placed at my disposal for about a month, and after having read them, I wrote two articles on them, one of which was read on the 5th May 1913 in the Anniversary Meeting of the Sahitya Parishada at Rangpur, Bengal, and the other on the 25th May 1913 in the 1st Annual Meeting of the Kamarupa Anusandhāna Samiti (Historical Research Society) at Gauhati, Assam. The present article is the substance in English of the two articles that I wrote in Bengali for the literary societies mentioned above.1
The grant was issued by Bhaskaravarman, king of Kamarüpa, whom we have hitherto known from two different sources, the Harshacharita of Banabhatta and the Hsi-Yu-chi of Yuan Chwang, who paid a visit to the capital of Bhaskaravarman in 643 A.D. while on pilgrimage in India. It was issued from his camp at Karnasuvarna, Two main problems present themselves before us at the outset, (1) How and when Karnasuvarna, which is found separately mentioned in Yuan Chwang's book, came under the sway of Bhaskaravarman, and (2) Whether or not Sylhet formed part of the kingdom of Kamarupa, and, if not, how the plates could be found in a place within the district of Sylhet.
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But before taking up these points we must first of all ascertain the locality of Karnasuvarna. This is a matter in which Doctors are found to disagree; but as it has been fully discussed in Mr. Watters' Yuan Chwang, and as we fully accept the conclusions arrived at there, we need not dilate on the subject any further.
The kingdom of Karnasuvarna was contiguous with the kingdom of Kamarupa, and as Yuan Chwang reached Karnasuvarna travelling south-east from Paundravardhana, and Kamarupa travelling east from Paundravardhana, Karnasuvarna was consequently south of Kamarupa, and in the map attached to Mr. Watters' Yuan Chwang, it has been shown southwest of Kamarupa. Yuan Chwang mentions Sasanka as the late king of Karnasuvarna, and in the Harshacharita of Bana, the same king has been designated as king of Gauda (i.e. Paundravardhana). Anyhow this ambitious and powerful monarch incurred the animosity of Harshavardhana, the great king of Sthanvisvara (Thanesar) by killing his elder brother Rajyavar. dhana in a rather treacherous way, and Bhaskaravarman, the king of Kamarupa, being the ruler of a neighbouring territory, was in constant dread of Sasanka, whose aspiration was to become the paramount ruler in India. It is the common rule of politics that two kings, inimically disposed towards one and the same third power, should become friendly to each other; and so we find, in the Harshacharita, that as soon almost as Harshavardhana assumed the reins of the kingdom, an ambassador from Bhaskaravarman approached Harsha with valuable presents in order to win the friendship of the great monarch. Although the two monarchs were thus united in a bond of friendship almost at the commencement of the reign
1 See the Bengali Journal Bijaya, Vol. i, pp. 625 ff.
3
Vide Vol. II, pp. 191-193.
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