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156
EPIGRAPHIA INDIOA.
[VOL. XIV,
No. 10.-THE NAIHATI GRANT OF VALLALA-SENA; THE 11TH YEAR..
BY R. D. BANERJI, M.A., INDIAN Museum, CALCUTTA. The plate on which this grant is incised was discovered by some coolies, while digging some waste land, between the villages of Naihati and Sita bati in the Katwa subdivision of the Burdwan district of Bengal, belonging to Babu Baidyanath Chatterji, Zamindar of Sitahati, in January 1911. The piece of waste land on which the grant was discovered is called by the local people Nai rājār bhita, " The ruins of Nai Raja's place." A copper cup," tāmrakunda," & vessel still in common use for divine worship in Bengal, was discovered at the same time. Subsequent excavations at the same place yielded some more utensils of worship :
(1) A copper censer on two legs, one of which is peculiarly curved. Such censers are very often repregented on the pedestals of images of the Pāla period (800-1200 A.D.).1 This form is no longer used in Bengal. Dr. J. Ph. Vogel, when Officiating Director-General of Archeology, found similar utensils for pujā, made of brass, in the Tirumalavadi Temple of Vaidyanatha, Trichinopoly district, Madras. The censer had a movable cover, which has now disappeared and of which the hinge only remains. It measures 7" in length and 47 in height,
(2-5) Four small stands or oups, most probably intended to hold püni-sarilhas, or conchshells. No. 2 measures 21" in height, and the diameter of the top is 13" No. 3 measures 2,4" in height, and the diameter of the top is 14". No. 4 measures 2 in height, and the dismetor of the top is ts". No. 5 measures 1}' in height, and the diameter of the top is 14".
(6-8) One elaborately carved and two plainly carved small' conch-shells, used during paja. They are called pāni-sarikhas and are not used for blowing. They are filled with water, and waved before the deity at the time of Arătrika.
(9-12) Four irregular pieces of oxidized zine.
The nature of the finds indicates that the piece of waste land where the grant and the other objects were discovered is the site of an ancient temple. Local people say that some images made of gold, or covered with gold leaf, were found at the same place. Mr. Tárak Chandra Roy, M.A., when Subdivisional Officer of Katwa, interrogated the agent of the Zamindär of Sitahati, who denied all knowledge of them. Subsequent inquiries did not lead to the discovery of any such images, and Mr. Roy is inclined to regard the rumours as baseless.
Immediately after the discovery & reading of the record with excellent photographs was published by Mr. Roy in the Journal of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad. A revised reading of the text was then published by Mr. Akshaya Kamara Maitreya, B.L., of Rājshāhi, in the Bengali monthly journal "Sahitya." Prof. Rådhāgovinda Basak, of the Rājshāhi College, published a Bengali translation of this record in the same journal. Subsequently Dr. D. B. fpooner, B.A., Ph.D., F.A.S.B., Superintendent, Archeological Survey, Eastern Circle, andertook to edit this grant for the Epigraphia Indica, and prepared a version of the text and a transdation. But he was unable to finish this task on account of pressure of work, and his discovery of the Maurya ruins of Pataliputra diverted his attention, and in 1915 he permitted me to take ap the work. Dr. Spooner's version of the text and bis translation of it have been largely used in this afticle.
1 Cunningham's Mahabodhi, pl. xxviii. * Bangiya-Sahitya Parishat-Patrikā, Vol. XVII, PP. 281-46
Saritya, Vol; XXII (B. 8. 1918), pp. 6-19-27. * Ibid, pp. 675-85.
