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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. XV.
After the discorery of the Dangarh grant the late Dr. Kie bora published the metrical portion only, i.e., the first twenty lines of the record. In 1912 Mr. Akshaya Kumāra Maitreya reprinted the text published by Dr. Kielhorn twenty years before.
With the exception of the tentative reading published by Dr. Hoernle in 1885, no attempt has hitherto been made to present a reliable version of the remaining portion of the text. In 1910 my attention was drawn to this grant, when I was engaged in writing my monograph on the Pala Kings of Bengal. I found that the plate had never been properly cleaned and the inscription in many parts of the first side had simply melted away. The subjoined version was completed after four years, during which period the authorities of the Asiatic Society of Bengal kindly allowed me to retain the original plate. I found that it was not possible to cbango Dr. Kiolhoru's version of the fourteen verses in the first twenty lines, and I confined my attention to the remaining portion of the record. With the exception of one or two doubtful places on the first side and portions of two lines on the second, in which the writing was orased and then re-written, the wholo of the record has been deciphered.
The record is incised on a single plate of copper, measuring 141" by 12". The royal soal is attached to the upper part of the grant. It consists of a circle with raised rim and headed border, resting on a mass of arabesque foliage. It is surrounded on all sides with arabesque work, and on its top rosts a small chaitya, over which is an umbrella. A long pennon hangs from each side of the umbrella. Of the area of the circle the apper half is occupied by the Whool of the Law (dharma-chakra), a convex wheel with eight spokes, resting on a pedestal and having a small umbrella over it. There is a deer couchant on each side of it. Below this is the name of the King "Śrir-Vigra ha-pala-dēvah" in clear raised letters. The space below the namo is Gllod with arabesque foliage. The soal was attached to a framework, probably of wire, which was secared to the plate with bolts. These bolts and a portion of the framework are now visible on the other side of the senl. The latter measures 7" in length, and the diameter of the circle nieasures 21". The height of the letters varies from 1 to 1". The engraving was carefully and neatly done. The record has suffered very much from corrosion, the first twenty letters at the beginning of each line on the first side being in almost all cases illegible. On the second side the last syllables also of each line have become more or less illegible. Portions of the 48th and 49th lines were erased after being engraved. The erasure not being complete, the words re-engraved are only partially legible.
The alphabet used in this record shows a nearer approach to the complete Bengali forms than that of the Bangarh grant of Mahi-päla I. Among vowel signs the only noticeable change is in a, which has developed a comma-like pendant, which is the distinguishing feature of the Bengali form. The form of ja is complete. Another letter which has a comma-shaped pendant, and wbich is almost fully developed, is ta : see the form in kakini-trayo-dhika (1. 25). The older form, which approaches the modern Någari one, is used side by side. Bha and ha are now perfectly distinct, the aspirate having developed a curved line at its left lower extremity, a sign which has already appeared in the forms used in the stone inscriptions of Mabi-pāla I.
The language of the record is Sanskrit. The first twonty lines, with the exception of Oih srasti, are in verse and give the well-known genealogy of the Pala dynasty from Go-päla I to Vigraha-pāla III, in fourteen verses. Of those verses twelve are already known from the Bangarh grant, only verses 12 and 13 being new. Verse 14 of the Amgachhi Grant is already known, as it has appeared as verse 11 of the Bangarh record. The grant was issued by the devout worshipper of Buddha, the Puramēšvara, Paramabhattāraka, Mahārājādhirāja, the illustrious
1 lbid., 1892, pp. 100-01.
Gandalékhamala, Vol. I, pp. 123-26 * vemoirs of the deitlic Society of Bengal, Vol. V, Xo. iii.
