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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
measurement. In the fifth part is mentioned the gift of the purchased land to the grantee, or to any god, by the donor-applicant. The sixth part refers to the merits accruing from making such pious gifts and contains the usual admonitory verses. It may be noted here that these different parts in the construction of such documents are more clearly observable in Plates Nos. 3-5 than in Nos. 1 and 2. The Dhānäidaha copper-plate grantl of the year 113 G.E., belonging to the reign of the Gupta monarch Kumāra-gupta I, also seems to be a document of a similar nature to those under examination.
The importance of these five copper-plate inscriptions is very great. They would much help us in readjusting already known historical facts of the Gupta period and in introducing new historical data, in the light of which the Gupta chronology is to be revised. However, before discussing the historical materials obtained from these inscriptions, and the other questions connected therewith, I propose to give below, for the convenience of the reader, a summary of the contents of the plates.
PLATE No. 1, of the time of Kumāra-gupta (I), dated in 124 (G.E.) (= 443-44 A.D.).
A Brāhmaṇa of the name of Karppaţika made an application before the local Government for a permanent grant to him, according to nivi-dharma, of one kulyavāpa of untilled a prada khila land, for convenient performance of his agnihotra rites, upon receipt from him of a price at the usual rate of three dināras for each kulyavāpa. His prayer was granted by the local Government of Kotivarsha vishaya, which was being carried on (samuy avaharatt) by krinārāmatya Vētravaruuan, appointed to this responsiblo post by uparika Chirātadatta, the head of the Puậdravardhara bhukti, who again was under the favour of the imperial " lord of the earth," parama-daivata, parama-bhattāraka, maharājadhiraja, the glorious Kumāra-gupta. Before the grant was sanctioned, the record-keepers were consulted in determining the title to the land.
PLATE NO. 2, of the time of Kumāra-gupta (I), dated in 129 (G.E.) (= 448-40 A.D.).
A person (whose name is undecipherable owing to very bad corrosion of this plate) approached the local Government of Kotivarsha vishaya, administered by krimārāmatya Vētravarman, appointed by uparika Chiratadatta, the head of the Pundravardhana bhukti, who, again, was dependent on the favour of "the imperial lord of the earth," parama-daivata, parama. bhattāraka, mahārājadhiraja, the glorious Kumāra-gupta, and prayed for the grant of a plot of waste land, to be transferred to bim on receipt from him of the price at the prevailing rate of three dināras for each kulyavāpa, for the maintenance of his pañcha-mahāyajñas. His prayer was granted, and land given him according to the determination of the prstapālas (recordkeepers).
PLATE No. 3, of the time of Budha-gupta (date in years lost from the upper left corner of the plate).
For the sake of increasing the merit of himself, as well as of his parents, a person (perhaps the village master=yrāmika) named Nabhaka wished to purchase some uncultivated aprada (unsettled) khila land in a village called Chaņdagrāma-the chief inhabitants of which were so informed by the mahattaras, the ashta-kuladhikaranas, the grāmikas and others from (the head-quarters) Palāśavsindaka-where he (Nābhaka) proposed to provide residence for some prominent Brāhmaṇas. His application was made when the bhukti Government of Pandravardhana was being carried on by the uparika-mahāraja Brahmadatta, favoured by the imperial " lord of the earth," parama-daivata, parama-bhattāraka, maharajadhiraja, the glorions
1 J. A. 8. B., 1909, pp. 469-61. Vide my reading of this inscription, published in the Bengali monthly, Sahitya (of Calcutta), Pausha and Chaitra inuen, 1823 B. S.
