Epigraphia Indica Vol 15

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

Page 64

No. 5.]
ANBIL PLATES OF SUNDARA-CHOLA: THE 4TH YEAR.
difficult to distinguish the one from the other, except from the context. See l. 10, where the looks like hi; also ha in l. 11; baha° in l. 12; bha in samabhavad in l. 24; and bhi in oyabhirakshita in l. 32. Again, the distinction made between pra and pri, sra and sri, etc., is very slight : see prassi in l. 84. The common habit (or custom) of duplicating unnecessarily ta and ttha after r appears in, e.g., pārtthivān in l. 59, "bharttuo in ll. 48 and 61. The use of the characteristic forms of the Drāvida country, such as tma for dma, tbha for dbha, etc., as in patma° in 7. 74, yāvatbhūtāni in l. 114, are noteworthy; other such Dravidian forms are chüļāmani in l. 41 for chūdāmani; vanmikao for 'valmtkao in l. 109; Srinadha for Srinātha in 11. 121-2. In the Tamil portion there is utter disregard of the appropriate use of the consonants n and : e.g., innum, which ought to be innum in l. 139 and throughout. The words ending in 7 and ai receive an addition of y, as it was usual in those days to pronounce such words; e.g., Dambāvāyzy in l. 148, naduvēy in l. 154, eto.
One curious feature of the Anbil plates is the mode of pagination; the older symbols, which are the lineal descendants of the Brāhmi namerals and which survived till very recently in Malabar, are employed to mark the numbers of the pages; they are na, na, nya, shkra, jhra, ha, yra, pra, drs, ma, and mna, representing the numerals 1 to 1l respectively. In all other instances the first three numerals are usually written na, nna, and nya; but in our record they are replaced by n, nna, and nya. Regarding this mode of pagination Mr. Bendall has written a paper in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1896, pp. 789 ff. The evolution of these symbols from the Brāhmi numerical symbols is traced in my paper on the Tiruvalla copper-plates, which will be published shortly in the Travancore Archeological Series.
The record under notice is of great value for the history of the Chöļa dynasty. We had hitherto only two copper-plate documents dealing with the detailed history of the Cholas, viz., the Leiden and the Tiruvālaogadu grants. The existence of the former has been known for at least 30 years, and the latter was discovered as early as 1906; but unfortunately neither of these most valuable records has as yet been published, though they are often quoted by the Madras Government Epigraphists in their Annual Reports. The Agbil plates constitute a third set similar to the two others mentioned above. But all the three happen to be compositions of different persons, namely, the Leiden grant of Nanda-Nārāyana, a resident of Kottaiyar and belonging to the Vasishtha götra ;' the Tiruvālaogādu grant of Nārāyana, the son of Sankara ;3 and the Anbil grant of Mādhava Bhatta of the Parāśara gotra. Therefore the information regarding the legendary portion of the genealogy of the Cholas is somewhat different in each, The genealogy as found in the Agbil plates is, for purposes of comparison, given side by side with those contained in the other two grants.
Regarding this custom of adding y in such cases see Sendami!, Vol. IV, pp. 399-401. · Burgess and Natesa Sastri's Tamil and Sanskrit Ins, pp. 208 and 218.
ग्रामे रम्ये मगति महिते कोहयूराभिधाने बौधामबजनि विमले यो वसिष्ठान्वबाये। सरसंसेवो विमलचरिती नन्दनारायणाख्य मोबन्धीमानरचयदिमामयजन्मा प्रशस्तिम् ।
Bp: An. Rep. for 1906, p. 67, para. 13. The verse referring to the authorship of the document rang follows:
पारस सतेनेदं भवेन मुरविहिषः । नारायन पबिना भासनं कतिमा कतम् ।