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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVI.
(reign) of victory, on the full-moon (day) of Kārttika, for the religious merit of his father and mother, has given with pouring-out of water, with gold, (income) and.... (and) with every exemption, Kamakapalli in the village (grāma) of Girigada in the district (vishaya) of Karvvannādga to the Soma sacrificer Soma-svāmin, belonging to the Värä hi gotra, who has completely studied the Rig-voda and who follows (the moral and ethical duties known as) yama and niyama.
(Line 12.) He who shall protect this charity) will sbare in the merit (attaching to the making of it); and he who shall confiscate it will be (guilty) of the five great sins.
[Here follow two of the customary admonitory verses.]
No. 20.-GARRA PLATES OF THE CHANDELLA TRAILOKYAVARMAN :
[VIKRAMA]-SAMVAT 1261. BY K. N. DIKSHIT, M.A., CALCUTTA.
These plates were found in a tank near the village of Garra, to the south-east of Chhatarpar, capital of the Indian state of the same name in Bundelkhand, and were subsequently sent to me for decipherment and publication through the kindness of Pandit Shukdeo Bihari Misra, B.A., Dewan, Chhatarpur State. Being considerably corroded when first received by me, the plates were thoroughly cleaned, and impressions were taken from them, which are published in the accompanying plate. They are now exhibited on loan in the Provincial Museum, Lucknow.
The plates are two in number. Each is a complete record by itself, engraved on only one side. They measure 131" by 81" and 12" by 71" respectively. A small hole (dia.t") at the top shows that at one time a ring must have been attached to the plates. Below the ring-hole, and dividing the first four lines of the inscription just in the centre of each plate, is engraved a seated figure of the goddess Lakshmi, with four arms, the upper two holding lotuses. On both the copper-plates the writing has been protected by means of copper bands, !" in breadth and from * to 1'" in thickness, rivetted along the edges. The letters are generally well preserved; but here and there a few letters are concealed by the protecting band, and at the bottom of plate II a portion has been damaged and lost, though the lacune can be easily supplied. The plates weigh 124 and 122 töläs respectively.
The alphabet is Nagari, regalar for the period and locality to which the record belongs. The sharp angular forms of letters, found in many inscriptions of the twelfth century, give place bere to more rounded ones. The identity of the signs for va and ba, the similarity of the forms of ra, cha, dha and ra and similar palæographical peculiarities have been noticed before in documents of this period (cf. Semra plates of Paramardi-dēva ; Ep. Ind., IV, 153 ff.).
The language is Sanskrit. Both the inscriptions are in prose throughout, excepting a verse each at the beginning and the end. Regarding orthography there is little to note. The influence of the vulgar pronunciation is reflected in the promiscuous use of sa and sa, ra and ba. Most of the consonants following r are doubled. Rules of Sandhi are often violated, and a final consonant is not marked with the virāma, as t in samhrat (I. 9 f.).
1 The full-moon day of Kärttika, as a day on which donations were made by the Kadamba kings, is men. tioned also in the Nilambur plates of Ravivarman (Ep. Ind, Vol. VIII, p. 146) and the Halsi plates of Mrigāśavarman (Ind. Ant., Vol. VI, p. 24).
[The form of deserveu notice as pointed out by Mr. Y. R. Gupte. It differs from that of the Serra plate, line 1, and is more progressive, giving us thus the earliest form of the moderu Devanagari i. --Ed.)
