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cha and ra, va and dha, ma and sa is also very slight. Professor Kielborn, while editing the Assam Plates of Vallabba-dēva, felt such a difficulty of decipherment due to the great similarity of signs for some letters and remarked that " where letters like these happen to occur in proper names ....... it is impossible to vouch for the absolute correctness of the transcribed text." The fome remark may hold good with regard to the roading of the proper Dame Kaliparuva-, I. 16 of our inscription, which looks like Kaliyavdha. Of initial vowels we. have met with the signs for i (in iti, 11. 4 and 11, in iha, 1. 15, and in iva, 1. 16), u (in upakārē, 1. 20) and 3 (in ēva, 11. 14 and 17). It may be noted that the initial i is denoted by two ringlets, placed side by side with a short horizontal line above. Attention may be drawn to the pecnliar forms of the following conjunct letters amongst others :-ksha e.g. in sākshād=, 1. 8; stha e.g. in sthānam, 1. 3; ktya eg. in faktyā, l. 13; nga e.g. in svänga-, 1. 2; shtha e.g. in nishtha-, 1.7; chchha e.g. in -chchhaivala , 1.4; shna e.g. in Vishnum, 1. 9; shţa e.g. in -anvishta., J. 24; hcha e.g. in -lakshyafi=cha, 1. 9; and jña, rika, sighya, spha, iya, ks, jjh, ta, nja, each occurring only once respectively in jñana, 1. 17; -vararkurānā, 11. 12-13; -alanghyām, 1. 8; sphutama, 1. 17; -jyotsnas, l. 8; samyak=sādhvyā, 1. 11; õjjhitan-, 1. 12; Bhatta-, I. 12; and -punje, 1 23. The forms of the individual consonants kha (9.g. in =khila-, 1. 2), gha (e.g. in agho-, 1. 12), ța (e.g in Sakati., 1. 4), tha (e.g. =tathaiva, 1. 1), pha (used only once in -phalair, 1. 17), and ha (e.g. in Hiranya., l. 2) are worthy of notice. The sign for visarga and that for anusvāra, of the variety which is represented by a circle and a virāma-stroke below it after the letter to which it belongs, have almost everywhere been marked with a matra above them.
As regards orthography, the letter ba is throughout expressed by the sign for va. Some of the other peculiarities of orthography which call for special notice are the following :-(1) the letters ka, ga (except in svair=gunaih, 1. 9), ta, pa, ma, and va are doubled after, whereas ya has been retained single in such position, and dha becomes ddha and bha once only v(6)bha, viz. in -garu(b)bha., 1. 2; (2) sa has once been substituted for the visarga after sa, viz, in ratis=satyē, l. 14 (but visarga has been retained in tasyah suto, 1. 13); (3) nowhere (except in one place, viz. tantri spratigham=, 1. 17) has the sign for avagraha been used; (4) the anusvāra is also indicated by a small circle placed above the line; (5) final t and are used with the virāma-stroke placed below them, the letters themselves being of a smaller size in such cases, e.g. in rabhut, 1. 13; karishyan, 1. 13; but final m at the end of the second and the fourth padas of a verse is throughout denoted by the sign for anusvāra which has a circle with virāma-stroke below it; (6) the superscript is not employed in the conjunct rna (cf. e.g. varn=na-, 1. 1), and this seems to be a special peculiarity in the script of the eleventh and the twelfth centuries. Only in a very few cases have the rules of sandhi been neglected, e.g. -nämnah tula-, 1. 19; -fasanan cha, 1. 20.
The language is Sanskrit, and, with the exception of the introductory Om namo bhagavate Vasudēvāya, the whole inscription is in verse. There are altogether twenty-nine verses. The only unusual form which is incorrect according to Pāṇini's grammar is the word mumõda, 1. 16, which ought to have been used in the atmanēpadiya form in laukika Sanskrit; but this form is permissible in Vedic Sanskrit. So our poet may be excused by the dictum of the Mahabhashya, viz. chhandovat kavayah kurvanti.
The object of the inscription is to record the erection of a temple wherein a Brahmana named Prahisa set up an image of Amara-nātba. He is also credited with having dedicated an image of Trivikrama and excavated a tank for the spiritual benefit of his father and mother. This inscription, like the one in the Bhubanēsvara temple of Orissa eulogizing BhattaBhavadova, furnishes a prasasti or eulogistic account of Prahāsa and his family. Here also we
Ep. Ind., Vol. V, p. 182. ? Kielhorn's edition of the Vyakarana-Mahabhashya, Vol. I, 2nd ed., p. 313, under Sutra 1. 4.3.
Ep. Ind., Vol. VI, p. 203.
