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252
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
14 m-atikrāmēt-tad-anura pam danḍam-arhati [*] Vijaya-samvatsarē traya15 strimse 30 3 hemanta-pakshē tritiyē 3 trayōdasyam likhitam-idam śāsanam ||1
Fourth Plate.
16 Atra cha dvau slōkav-ndaharanti [*] Sva-dattam para-dattam va yo harēta vasundharam [*]
17 gavan Sata-sahasrasya hantaḥ pibati dushkrita [m] [*] Brahma-svam tu visham ghoram
18 na visham visham-uchyate [] vishan-tv-ēkākinam hanti brahma-svaṁ putrapantrika[m]
B.-ŌMGŌDU GRANT OF SIMHAVARMAN II: THE 4TH YEAR.
These are five thin copper-plates without rims, strung on a plain ring with no seal attached to it. They measure roughly 61" by 2". The first and last plates are blank on their outer faces. The plates are not numbered, as in the case of A. With the ring they weigh 44 tolas.
The characters are much more developed than those of A and belong to a period at least a hundred years later. The curvilinear form of la takes the place of the earlier square form (except in bala in line 2), and ma is not the broad-based letter with its two prominent prongs, but a va with a short arm attached to the top of the vertical on its left side. The letters ka and ra show similar wide differences from their earlier types, being written J and J in the Uruvupalli, Mangaḍur and the Pikira grants and in A, but as and U in the subjoined grant and in the Chendalar plates of Sarvalokaáraya of A. D. 673 (above, Vol. VIII, Plate facing page 238). The occurrence of final m in 11. 24, 28, 29 and 31, of the upadhmaniya in hantuḥ pibati in 1. 29 may also be noted. The writing would compare favourably with the characters of the plates of a certain Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman noticed at page 82 of the Madras Epigraphical Report for 1914 and roughly assigned there to the beginning of the 7th century A.D. Consequently it appears as if the record under review must have been a copy of a grant of the 5th6th century A.D., put into writing in the 7th century, though no direct evidence, external or internal, is to be found on this point from the wording of the grant itself. The numerous mistakes made by the engraver may possibly point to this conclusion.
The record is one of the dharma-mahārāja Simhavarman II of the Bharadvaja götra and the Pallava lineage, son of the yupa-mahārāja Vishnugopa, grandson of the maharaja Skandavarman and great-grandson of the maharaja Viravarman. These names, given in the order of succession, are quite the same as those of the Uruvupalli and the Pikira grants. The laudatory epithets too which precede the names of the several kings are practically identical with those of the latter. We have thus a third grant (though a copy) of the time of Simhavarman II, the first being his Pikira grant of the 5th year and the second the Uruvupalli grant of his 8th year. The Mangaḍür grant of his father, yuva-maharaja Vishnugopavarman, which is also supposed to be dated in the reign of this same Simhavarman II, belongs to the 11th year of his reign. Consequently the subjoined Omgōḍu grant, dated in his fourth year, contains the earliest inscription of Simhavarman II known so far. The plates do not commence with the name of the royal camp, as in inscription A, and the Pikira, Uruvupalli and the Mangaḍar grants, but merely
The punctuation after the word fasanam is marked by an indistinct symbol, which may correspond to M
of the later Pallava stone inscriptions, but appears to be joined at the bottom.
2 A final m may have been written here in place of the usual anusvára; but it is very indistinct both in the original and in the impression.
