Epigraphia Indica Vol 15

Author(s): Sten Konow, F W Thomas
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 57

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
comparatively shallow and hurriedly engraved. Some of the lines of letters in the second plate show clearly at the back, owing to the thinness of the metal. The average height of an individual letter on the two plates is" and "respectively. The average number of letters in a line is 25 and 32 respectively. The weight of the plates together with the seal is 97 tōlās.
The characters belong pre-eminently to the nail-headed ' variety of alphabets, of which the present is the earliest example, the only other instance from which the variety was known being the Majhgawan plates of Hastin, issued about a century later. A few letters are also written in the better known 'box-headed' variety, which was largely used in the central parts of India from the fifth century A.D. onwards and in which all the other known inscriptions of the Vakataka rulers were written.
Though the central Indian alphabets are generally supposed to be a variety of the southern, the present record shows a considerable admixture of northern peculiarities. For example: the letter ma occurs in its unlooped form, la has a short vertical, ha curves down to the left. ga has a loop or arrow-head at the bottom of the left member; sa, sha and sa have similar loops; medial consists of a curved line drawn from the top to the left, being distinguishable from medial é only by a slight difference in carvature. In all these respects the alphabets closely resemble those used in the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudra-gupta. On the other hand. southern characteristics are apparent in the following letters: a, ka, ra and even ta and ga have curves at the bottom curling up to the left; the lingual da is round-backed; the subscript ri consists of a curve to the left added at the bottom; the northern form of the lingual na is generally used, but in one place the southern also occurs. So it is rather difficult to ascertain whether the northern or the southern characters predominate. The most conspicuous feature of the central Indian script of this period, as remarked by Bühler, is the straightening of all carvilinear strokes. This peculiarity is somewhat developed by the time of the issue of this grant, though not to the same extent as we find later on; e.g. the letters pa, va, cha, etc. have sharp angles, but not the letters ma, ya, la and others, as in the grants of Pravarasena II. Indeed the difference between the characters used in the present grant and those in the grants of Pravarasena II strikes us as in every way too great for the period of 25 or 30 years which must have intervened between these records. It is also noteworthy that the affinities of the present script, which ought to have been with the contemporary records of the time of Kumāragupta I, are more with the older Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudra-gupta. The language is Sanskrit, and the whole record is in prose, except the two Anushṭubh verses, one on the seal aud one, the usual imprecatory verse, at the end. Regarding orthography, we may note the doubling of the consonant after r as in °varddhanal (1. 1), arttham (1. 13), acharyya (1. 14). purvva (11. 14 and 15), charmma (1. 17), parivarddha (1. 18), kuryyama (1. 20). The Jihvāmuliya is used twice, viz. in binah-kusala (1. 12), °ajñaḥ-kartaryah (1. 15); the Upadhmaniya is used once in pradaḥ-parama (1. 6). The class nasal is generally used in the body of a word, and an anusvira is preferred at the end; they exceptious being jitam-blaga (1.1) and 'dattam-para- (1. 21). The rules of Samahi are generally observed, except in places in the second plate. A few forms are ungrammatical, such as trayodaśame (1. 22).
The donor of the grant was the dowager-queen Prabhavati-gupta, daughter of the Mahārājādhiraja Chandra-gupta II of the Imperial Gupta dynasty, chief queen of Mahārāja Rudra-sena II of the Vākāṭakas, and mother of the young prince Diväkara-sēna, who had obtained sovereignty in due succession.' The object of the grant was non-sectarian, being the bestowal of a village named Danguna, in the Supratishtha Ahara, upon a Brahman, the Acharya (preceptor) Chanala-Svamin. The place of encampment was Nandivardhana. The engraver was Chakradāsa.
The grant has been for some time known to Indian archaeologists, as a brief summary of it was published in Ind. Ant., Vol. XLI (pp. 214-15). Its valuable nature