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No. 12.]
THE KEDARPUR PLATE OF SRI-CHANDRA-DEVA.
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numerous and they have rendered the preparation of a correct text an undertaking of exceptional difficulty.
The inscription refers to the reign of Sri-Chandra-Dēva of the Chandra family of Kings who held sovereignty in East Bengal for some decades before the rise of the Varmans and the Sēnas in that part of the country, towards the end of the Pala role in North Bengal. It is written in what may be called the Bengali Script of the 10th-11th century A.D. The language of the inscription is correct Sanskrit verse, except in the portions spoiled by engraver's mistakes. The last three lines are in prose.
There is nothing very special as regards orthography. The use of va for ba is almost the rule in the later East Indian epigraphs, there being no discrimination between them, as in the modern Bengali language. The avagraha is once used and once omitted. The spelling of the word nistringa with ri is remarkable. Superimposed has doubled almost all consonants.
From a comparison of the abstract of the Idilpar plate of Sri-Chandra published in the Dacca Review, referred to above, with the contents of the present plate, it is evident that the two plates are copies of the same draft, The Idilpur plate seems to have an extra Sloka towards the end, borrowed from Sri-Chandra's Rāmpal plate, which is otherwise the copy of a draft different from that of the Idilpar and the Kedårpur plutes. It should be noted, however, that the opening invocatory Sloka is identical in all the three plates.
Sri-Chandra seems to have been the only king of the Chandra family who was powerful enough to issue copper-plate grants, as the three plates hitherto discovered are all in his name. In order, therefore, to bring together all the epigraphical material available for his history. I quote below the necessary portions from Babu Gangāmohan Laskar's abstract of the Idilpur plate, as published in the Dacca Review. The plate is reported to exist still; but it is in the custody of people who are unwilling to show it to anybody again.
"The inscription gives the names of three kings :-(1) Suvarnna-Chandra. (2) His son Trailökya-Chandra. (3) Trailokya-Chandra's son (Sri)-Chandra.Dēvs. The last of these kings issues & command from his victorious camp at Vikrampur making a gift of certain lands at the village called Leliya in the Kumaratāla kā sub-division (mandala) of the Satata-Padm.vāti district (vishaya). The name Satata-Pad måväti literally means 'with-bank-Padmå-house and was most probably the name of a district on the banks of the Padmå river. The names of some of the donees are still legible and the measures of the area of the granted lands are called dronas and patakas, as in the Asrafpur plates. Paramount titles such as Paramétvura, Paramabhattaraka and Mahārajadhvirāja are attached to the names of (fri)-Chandra-Deva. The title Parama-Saugata (the devout worshipper of Sugata, s.e. Buddha) is prefixed to the name of the donor. The characters ased are probably of the 12th century type of the Bengali alphabet. The seal attached to the top of the plate resembles the seals found on the plates of the Pala king of Bengal. The inscription under notice is very important, as it, like the Asrafpur plates of Dēvakhadga, shows the existence of Buddhist kingdoms in East Bengal in the period not much anterior to the conquest of Bengal by the Mussalmans.
".. . .. The plate is inscribed on one side fully and on another side partly. The writing on the second side has become almost defaced. This defaced portion contains the names of the donee and the particulars of the lands granted. There are altogether 36 lines of writing. An analysis is given below:
Lines 1-4. Contain a verse in honour of Buddha, probably.
II should gratefully acknowledge here the help that I have received in this respect from Prof. Abbnyi Charan Chakravarti, M.A., of the Jagannath College, Dacca, without whose help I could hardly have made any headway, especially with the passages that are marred by the engraver's mistakes. I also owe some improvemonts in the reading of the text to the suggestions of ny friend Prof. Basak, in whose company I had the opportunity of revising my first transcription.
[In this extract, the discritical inarks, aceording to the latest emendation, have been adopted.-H. K. S.]
