________________
No. 18.]
MATTEPAD PLATES OF DAMODARAVARMAN.
827
of all the rulers of the world, and before whose foot-stool (the neat where his lotus-feet rested) the groups of princes bowed.
V. 32. With the mind attracted by the manifold excellences of Naland and through devotion to the son of Suddhodana (the Buddha) and having realised that riches was fickle like the waves of a mountain stream, he whose fame was like that of Sanghårthamitral, built there (at Nālandā) & monastery which was the abode of the assembly of monks of various good qualities, and was white with the series of stuccoed and lofty dwellings.
V. 33. Having requested, King Dēvapāladēva, who was the preceptor for initiating into widowhood the wives of all the enemies, through envoys, very respectfully and out of devotion and issuing a charter, (he) granted these five villages, whose purpose has been noticed above for the welfare of himself, his parents and the world.
V. 34. As long as there is the continuance of the ocean, or the Ganges has her limbs (the currents of water) agitated by the extensive plaited hair of Hara (Siva), as long as the immovable king of snakes (Šēsha) lightly bears the heavy and extensive earth every day and as long as the (Udaya) Eastern and (Asta) Western mountains have their crest jewels scratched by the hoofs of the horses of the Sun so long may this meritorious act, setting up vịrtues over the world, endure.
No. 18.-MATTEPAD PLATES OF DAMODARAVARMAN.
BY PROFESSOR E. HULTZSCE, PA.D.; HALLE (SAALE). This inscription is engraved on flve very thin copper-plates, which were found in the village of Mattepad in the Ongole Taluk of the Guntor District and forwarded to Rao Bahadar H. Krishna Sastri by the Tahsildar of Nellore. The plates measure 6 inches in breadth and 13 inches in height. There are eight inscribed faces, the outer faces of the first and last plates having been left blank. Each inscribed face bears only two lines of writing. The margins of the plates are not raised into rims, but the writing is in fair preservation. The five copperplates are strung on a ring of the same metal, passing through a hole of about 1' in diameter on the left side of the writing. The two ends of the ring, which is about 21" in diameter, are fixed in the base of an oval seal, which is much worn; it seems to bear, in relief, the figure of a Beated ball, facing the proper right. The weight of the plates, with ring and seal, is 30 tolas.
The alphabet is of an early Southern type. The Jihvamaliya ooours in line 7, and the Upadhinantya in line 16; 'final forms of t and m in lines 1, 7, and 15, 16 (twice), respectively. As in the case of the plates of Chårudovi (above, Vol. VIII, No. 12) and of Vijaya-Dévavarman (Vol. IX, No. 7), the eight inscribed faces are numbered consecutively, like the pages of a modern book, with the numerioal symbols 2, [3], 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 on the left margin; the first plate seems to bear, just as that of Dovavarman,' the sacred syllable or in the place of the figure 1. The symbol 2 occurs also in the date (I. 14), and the symbol 1 repeatedly in lipes 8-13
The language of the plates is Sanskrit mixed with Prikfit. Lines 1-14 are in prose, and the two last lines in verse. In the Sanskrit portion consonanta following are doubled, with the exception of t in kartum- and of h in arhanti (1.6). The Sandhi is neglected after
purat (1.1), otasya and -sagotrasya (1.2), -grāmayaka) (1.4), -gramab (1. 5), and bhumi (1. 15).
1 This might possibly mean that his wealth befriended the cause of the Sangha,
Bee sb.vo, Vol. IX, p. 57.
