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144
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XIV.
in_
PION PHA INDICA
P
. XIV.
No. 8.-SANJAN PLATES OF BUDDHAVARASA.
BY STEN Korow. These plates have already been published by Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, who remarks that they were found by Hasanji Kelia, a cultivator of Sanjin in the Umbargaon pöths of the Dåbånd Täluks of the Thana district." I now edit the grant from impressions kindly prepared by Mr. H. Consens.
There are altogether two plates, measuring 97" x 8P". According to Mr. Jackson, “they have raised rims, and are pierced with two holes for the connecting ringe, of which the left-hand one, bearing a heavy copper seal with the figure of a lion walking to the left, still remains intact." The beginning and the lower corners of the first and the lower left-hand corner of the second plate have been damaged. In other respects the plates are in a fair state of preservation. The first plate contains twenty and the second nineteen lines, and the letters can mostly be read with certainty. The first line is mooh effaced and cannot be made out with certainty.
The characters belong to the southern class and might well belong to the latter half of the seventh century. Sometimes, however, quite peculiar forms occur. Compare ra in -rüpan, 1. 2; la in brimatăsh, 1.2 ; - fira, 1. 7; -Dasaratha., 1.7; -mitesha-, l. 12; va in varo, 1. 5; oya in -Manadya., l. 2, eto. Da has a loop at the bottom; compare paundarika-, 1. 6; bahudanda, 1. 10; 8ēdiva-, 11. 22, 27, 34; Lavarivaundona, 1. 22; Kafichadi., 1. 24; Viyadi-, 1. 24. The cerebral pa usually takes the form illustrated in Bühler's Table VII, column 21, numbers I-III. The form giveu as number IV, however, ocours twioe in -kalyanaparamparäpan, 1. 4. The dental na has a loop. Both the a and the ai mátrás are attached to the right-hand bar of pa in -Pautra, 1. 29; Pausha-, 1. 33, while the as strokes are attached to the left-hand bar in paundarika-, I. 6; prapautts, 1. 29. A peculiar interest attaches to the sign for la. There are, as a matter of fact, two different forms of this siga, compare sakala., 1.2, and daráhala nichhanan, 1. 5. On comparing the signs, it will be seen that the former corresponds to the la given under Nos. VI-IX in column 34 of Bühler's Table VII, while the latter corresponds to the fifat numbers of the same column, and still more closely to the most common la in Gupta inscriptions. These two different forms of la are used side by side in several inscriptions from the time of the Guptas onwards, and usually there does not seem to be any difference made between them. In the Sanjan plates, however, they seem to be differentiated according to a distinot principle. The former ocoors in sakala-, 1. 2; Chalukyandth, 1. 5; -tula., 1. 6; -pålana-, 1. 10; -sajalajaladharapatalavyomatala., 11. 10 f. ; -dhavalavimala-, 1. 11; Chalukyakulas, 1. 15; -palanas, 1. 16; -vipula., l. 16; kubali, 1. 17; -kula., 11. 18, 23 ;-Uddhaodli-, 1. 24; talavriksham, 1. 25; kalina, I. 29; -Vilachchlea, 1. 31; bali-, 1, 31; phala, 1. 35; -mupalanan, 1. 39, and further in - Kokkulli- (P), 1. 13, and Kalvivana-, I. 29. The latter ocoura in locha, 1. 1; -kalyāna-, 1. 4; vardha-lamchhanan, 1.5; labdha., 11. 8, 15, -vallabha., 11. 9, 13; Malla., l. 22; Lavanivaundena, I. 22, and further in Palaketi-, 1. 9 Bagula, 11. 21, 31, 34; Varasigilēna, 1. 23. If we compare all these instances, it will be seen that one form of 1 is regularly used for a single incompounded l between vowels, while the other form occurs when I is initial or combined with another consonant. There are, as will be seen, some exceptions to this role. The intervocalio form is also need in Kokkulli., 1..13, and - Kalotvana-, 1. 29, and the initial form in Palakēdi-, 1. 9; Sagula-, 11. 21, 31, 34; Varasigilēna, 1. 23. It will be seen that all the exceptions occur in names, which cannot, of course, be viewed in the same way as ordiuary words. The reading - Kokkulli-, l. 13, is moreover quite uncertain. It can
so be read Koklon iri or perhaps even Kokkuli. It is impossible to deoide whether the o is long
Jorral Bomb. As. Soc., vol. XX, PP. 40 and I.
