Epigraphia Indica Vol 15

Author(s): Sten Konow, F W Thomas
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 12

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
VOLUME XV
No. 1.-NEULPUR GRANT OF SUBHAKARA : THE 8TH YEAR.
BY R. D. BANERJI, M.A.
This copper-plate was brought to me for decipherment in March 1914 by Munshi Muhammad Hagain, Zamindar of Darppan in the Cuttack District of Origa, and the late Babu Byomakosa Mustaphi, Assistant Secretary, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad. I was informed by Munshi Muhammad Husain, the present owner of the plate, that it had been found among some old records of his family. The Muhammadan Zamindars of Darppan in the Cuttack District are, I am informed, descended from a very old royal family of Orissa; they were formerly Flindas, but were converted after the Muhammadan conquest of the country. Though at present Mohammadans, they are still known as the Rajas of Darppar.
The inscription on the copper-plate brings to light a new dynasty of kings of Orissa, who professed Buddhism. With the exception of the Palas of Bengal, I do not think that we know of any other dynasty of which all the kinge professed the Buddhist faith. Northern Indian dynasties, so far au we know, were mostly Hindu, and in no case do we find that all kings were of the Buddhist faith. The kings of the dynasty to which Harshavardhana of Kanauj belonged were partly Hindus and partly Buddhists. The kings of the new dynasty are all Buddhists. Buddhist kings of hitherto known dynasties are found to have called themselves Parama-saugata, "devout (worshipper) of the Sagata"; but those of the new dynasty coined fresh titles for themselves, e.g." Parama-tathāgata," the meaning of which is the same as that of the preceding one. Another interesting point of the new inscription is the mention of the name Uttara-Tosali. The name Tosali is met with for the first time in the Orissa edicts of Aboka. It is also to be found in a later inscription, the Patiakella grant of Sivarāja, where Southern Tosali is mentioned. Here the place where the kings of the new dynasty reigned is mentioned as Uttara-Tõsali," the northern part of Tosali."
The record is incised on a single plate of copper, oblong in shape, measuring 1' 57' in length and 71" to 7" in breadth. There is a projection on one side, ito which the seal is. attached. The seal is thick, ciroular in shape, and its diameter is 2'. 'The impression is also circular and has a border of two concentric circular lines. The area is divided into two unequal parts. The upper part, which is the larger of the two, bears the figure of a bull couchant on a short pedestal. The lower part evidently bore the name of the king
Sri-Subha[kara)-dēvasya but the letters are alipost illegible. The plate has thirty-four lines in writing, of which the first side has nineteen lines and the second side fifteen. The last five lines bave been very
See ante, Vol. IX, pp. 286-87.