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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVI.
No. 19.-TWO KADAMBA GRANTS FROM SIRSI.
Br V. S. SUKTHANKAR, PA.D., POONA. The copper-plates bearing the subjoined insoriptions, which are now edited for the first time, belong to Mr. Subbaya Nagappa Hegde of Ajjibal in the Sirsi Taluka of the North Kanara District. They have been in the possession of Mr. Hegde's family for a very long time; so long, in fact, that nothing is now known as to when and under what circumstances the plates came into the possession of the family. I obtained them on loan through the good offices of Mr. Shankarrao Karnad, Higa Court Pleader, Bombay, who, at my request, kindly induced his colleague Mr. V. G. Hegde, B.A., LL.B., Sirsi (a son-in-law of the owner), to send the plates to me for inspection and to allow me to take impressions from them. I am thus editing the grants from the original plates, which were on loan with me for abont six months daring 1918, and from a set of inked impressions prepared from them in the office of the Superintendent, Archeological Survey, Western Circle. The annexed facsimiles were subsequently prepared under the supervision of the Government Epigraphist from the inpressions supplied by me. The transcript given below has been carefully compared in manuscript) with the originals before the latter were returned to the owner. My sincere thanks are duo to Megre. Kapnad and Hegde for this opportunity of offering here a description of these interesting records of the reigas of the Kadamba kings Ravivarman and Kfish avarman of Vaijayanti (Banavasi). Their chief claim to our attention lies in the regnal years in. wbich they are dated. The grant of Ravivarman was made (if my reading of the date is correct), in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, and that of Kộishpavarman in the nineteenth year.
A.-PLATES OF RAVIVARMAN: THE [3]6TH YEAR. These are three copper-plates, the first and last of which are inscribed on one side only, and each of which measures roughly 5%' long by 3" broad. They are quite smooth, their edges being neither fashioned thicker por raised as rims. Although the plates are fairly thin, the engraving, not being very deep, does not show through on the reverse sides. The letters show evident traces of the working of the engraver's tool. The entire inscribed surface of the first plate is more or less corroded; but only at a few plades has the engraving thereby been so far affected as to have become quite illegible. The second plate is, in a sense, in & worse condition, as three of its edges are eaten away; and with them the greater part of l. 6, abont a third of 1. 17, and somo syllables in 11. 11 and 16 are completely lost. The third plate is fortunately quite uutouched, and the engraving on it is in an almost perfect state of preservation. The most deplorable part of the havoc wrought on these plates by the destructive agency is that in line 11 some of the letters comprising the words expressing the date are damaged in such a manner that the reading of the date (which is by far the most important element of the record) has to be based on a conjectural restoration from which the element of ancertainty cannot entirely be eliminated. Of no great consequence is, on the other hand, the dumage to line 6; for from the preserved fragments of letters we may, I think, safely conclude that the line contained nothing more than a eulogistio phrase or two, which, even if restored, would have added nothing of importance to our stock of knowledge concerning the history of the Kadambas. The plates are pierced by a circular hole so as to receive the ring and seal which are attached. The weight, including the ring and seal, is 381 tolas. The ends of the ring are Becurely soldered on to the back of the senl. About an eighth of an inch of the edge of the latter is raised so as to form a rim; the recessed space, which is oblong in shape, is devoid of legend or emblematic desigo.
The caracters, which show great uniformity throughout, belong to the southern variety, and have close affinities with those of other grants of tho Kadamba kings, especielly with the
