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No. 7.]
DAMODARPUR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTIONS.
135
The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets of the fifth century A.D. The characters of Plates Nos. 3-5 approximate very closely to those used in the Bhitari seal (J. A. 8. B., 1889) of Kumāra-gupta III's time and the inscriptions of the time of some of the Parivräjaka mahārajas and the maharajas of Uchchakalpa (vide Fleet, C. I. I., Vol. III, Nos. 21-31) and in the Eran inscription of Budha-gupta's time (ibid, No. 19). They also resemble those of the inscriptions of Toramaņa's and Mihirakula's reigas (ibid, Nos. 36 and 37). We have the initial a form in ākshēpta, 1. 13. The peculiar form of medial à after na, dha and ba especially is to be remarked. It is indicated (as in the initial ākīra mark in the Gupta period) by a hook attached to the bottom on the proper left of these letters-e.g. in brāhmanadyān, 1.3, brahmanaryyān, l. 4, punyā pyāyanāya, l. 4, avadharitar, 1. 6, -avadharanayā, l. 8, vasudha, 1. 12, and bāhya, 1. 5. For a similar use of medial a we may refer to the Mandasor inscription of the time of Naravarman (Mälava era 461), E.I., Vol. XII, No. 35, p. 316. The virama ta is often joined with the following pa and sa, as in tat-pada, 1. 1, and ovrindakat=savisvāsa, 1. 2. The virāma na is also seen joined with the following consonant, e.g. pa, in Paryyān=pratitāsayitu in, 1. 4. As regards orthography, the other peculiarities that call for remark are the following:--(1) Before sa the visarga is often replaced by s, as in mātā pitros=svapunya., 1. 4, pitsibhis=saha, 1. 12, and rājabhis Sagarādibhiḥ, 1. 12; (2) The letters ga, ta, diha, ma, ya, va, and sha are doubled after r, e.g. scarggē, 1. 13; karttur, 1. 6; samvyavaharibhiruddharma, 1. 11; dharmma, 1. ll; brīkmanäryyān, 1. 4, maryyadayā, 1. 5 and 1. 9, maryyala-, l. 7; pūruvēna, 1. 9, bahubhir=uvasudhī, l. 11; and maharshshibhih, 1.11, varshsha-, 1. 13; (3) The fifth consonant of the pa-varga is not changed into unusvāra, e.g. Svadattam-para, 1. 11. The sign for ba is very distinctly shown in brāhmanūdyān., l. 3, brāhmaniryyāns, 1. +, and bāhya-, l. 5. Numerical symbols for 10 and 3 are visible in the recording of the month (Ashadba) in line 1. The date in yoars is unfortunately lost; but the numerical figure 3 after what seems like the symbol for 60 is also visible before the word Ashadha in l. 1.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit, and the whole document, with the exception of the three imprecatory verses in 11. 11-13, is in prose. If the date in years, as read by me, is correct, it should be 163 G.E.=482-83 A.D.; for we know that the already known dates for Budha-gupta range from 157 G.E. to 175 G.E., i.e. from 476 A.D. to +95 A.D. The day is mentioned as the 13th of the month Ashädba. The object of the inscriptioa is to record the purchase of one kulyavāpa of waste land by a village-head (yramika) named Nābhaka, of tho village of Chanda-grama, for the purpose of settling some Brāhmaṇas. The applicant had to obtain the sanction of the government of the bhukti of Pandravardhana. The use of the affix ka in the word grāma, 1. 3 and 1. 9, is to be noticed. For similar use of the same aflis in some words during the reigns of the early Guptas vide the late Dr. Fleet's remark on p. 69 of the C. I.I., Vol. III. For further details of the contents vide the introductory portion of this paper. The places Chanda-grima and Vāyi-grama could not be identified. As regards the naine Paläsavrindaka, it may be noted that there are two places of the name of Paläsabůree, one about 10 miles N.E. of the town of Dinajpur and about 14 miles due north of the find-place of these plates, and the second lying about 16 miles N.E. of the town of Dinajpur and about 20 miles due north of the find-place. Another place, about 9 miles N.W. of the find-place and about 11 milos S. E. of the town of Dinajpur, is called Paläsdāógā.
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TEXT.
First Side. f QHTATTAHEI[TJAETTTTT. NUTÀ (afularunt genie[uft]rstag []- .
