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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XV.
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A second alternative would be to refer the date to a local era. Bat such expedients of inventing new and unknown eras are excusable only in those cases where the dates cannot properly be referred to any well-known era. In this connection wo may recollect the principle emphasised by Dr. Fleet that we should, whenever practicable, avoid the assumption of an ere for the existence of which there is no actual evidence at all (J. R. A. 8., 1905, p. 231). On the whole, therefore, I think it perfectly justifiable to refer the date 67 of the inscription to the well-known Gupta Era. If we take this view, it is the earliest datod inscription of the Guptas, and the earliest copper-plate grant ever discovered in Northern India.
The inscription records the royal confirmation of a brahmadöya made to a Brahmapa. The Kondumudi plates of Jayavarman (Ep. Ind., Vol. VI, p. 315) have made us familiar with the peculiar nature of this class of grant. It would appear from the Arthafastra that a brahmadeya differed in some respects from an ordinary grant, being endowed with privileges and immunities which did not belong to the latter.
The first word of the inscription offers a great diffionlty. It consists of two letters, of which the first is undoubtedly ra and the second looks like lkha. The only explanation I can suggest is to take it as the name of the place from which the grant was issued, and, adding a t before the following letter, to read the whole passage as Valkhat paramao
The words santaka and yuktakain line 2 require a word of explanation. Santaka is need in a similar sense in the Pārdi Plates of Dahrasēns (Ep. Ind., Vol. X, pp. 51 ff.) and the inscriptions of the Vákātaka kinge (Fleet's Noy. 55, 56). It is really a Prakrit word, but is used several times in the Divyavadana, and as such noticed in the St. Petersburg Dictionary. It is derived from the root as and means " belonging to" (also cf. Fleot's Gupta Inscriptions, p. 118).
The word yuktaka, unknown to Sanskrit lexicographers, is however used several times in early inscriptions, specially in the Rashtrakāta grants. Thus it occurs in the two Bagamri Plates of Indrrája III (Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, pp. 24 ff.) and the Cambay Plates of Govinda IV (Ep. Ind., Vol. VII, p. 39) and is explained by Mr. D. E. Bhandarkar as officials. See below, p.-3, n. 3.-Ed.)
The beginning of line 6, as it stands, scarcely offers any meaning, and there are palpable mistakes in it. I possess another copper-plate grant of a later date, of which the wordings are very similar to those of the present one, and in which the expression under consideration is replaced by (krit-anujñasy-a). The sixth letter in the line also looks very much like jna; and I propose therefore to emend the text of our inscription, and to take the expression as krit-ānujñasy=.
Again in line 7 sarvvair= v=āsma-paksha-tak-tulyadithis offers no meaning. The corresponding expression in the other grant is sarovairēv=dsmat-pakshiyaih and I propose therefore to emend the text as aaruvair-do-demat-paksha-tat-tulyadibhih. [But see below, p. 289, n. 12. -Ed.]
The localities mentioned in the inscription are "Nagarika-pathako dakshina-Valmikatallavăţake." On the analogy of such village names as Prastara-vitaka' (Botol Plates of San. kahobha, Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 287) Valmikatalla-vätaka may be taken as the name of village, the epithet dakshina,' or 'Bouth,' being probably intended to differentiate it from another village of the same name. As Mr. Kira Lal, the editor of the last mentioned inscription,
1 The term brahmadiya in its Prakrit form bralmadeyya occurs frequently in Pali literature. Dr. Fick bus referred to several instangon in the Jataka and the Digha Nikaya (Soolale Gliederway, p. 187). Bee also Kautilya Arthafastati, ed. R. Shamasastry, p. 46.
Prof. Kadhagovinda Bank, M.A, suggests that the word is Ayuktaka. je. No, II, below,
