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No. 19.]
331
URLAM PLATES OF HASTIVARMAN.
bear writing on both sides. The margins of the plates are not raised into rims, but the writing is in good preservation. The plates are strung on a copper ring, which is passed through a hole about " in diameter near the left margin of the writing. The ring is about 3' in diameter and now carries no seal; but there are clear traces of a seal having once been soldered on it. The weight of the plates, with the ring, is 42 tolas.
The plates were received by Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Sastri from Mr. K. Nagesvara Rao, Editor of the Andhra Patrika,' who stated that they are the private property of the Raja of Urlām, Chicacole taluk, Ganjam District. Mr. T. Rajagopala Rao has already published the text of the inscription on them in his journal. South Indian Research for July 1919.
The alphabet is of an early Southern type and closely resembles that of the Achyutapuram plates of the Gånga Mahārāja Indravarman I of Kalinga, which were drafted by the same officer as the Urlam plates. A final form of m occurs at the end of the inscription, while it is replaced by Anusvāra in phalar (1. 20) and opalanaṁ (1. 21). The two numerical symbols 8 and 80 are used in the date (1. 23), where 80 is expressed by the numerical symbol 80 and a superfluous cipher added to it.
The language is Sanskrit, prose and five verses (11. 19-22, 23-26). As to orthography-v is used for b in "vidha (1. 14). The syllable ri is replaced by the vowel ri in the second syllable of kritpind (1.17). A nesvāra is represented by gutturali in Rajasiri hasya (1. 24) anl -sanghatēh (for-sarhatēļ, l. 25). Consonants are doubled after r, with the exception of sh (in varsha-, 1.2); and dh is doubled before y in -īnuddhyātaḥ (1. 7). The sandhi is neglected After -yasaḥ (1.5), =smābhiḥ (1. 9), Roşiddhaye (1.11), -simāntiks and valmikah (1. 16), and rongly made in -rapyä (1. 15) and tato (1. 18).
The inscription records the grant of a piece of land at the village of Hondevaka in Grish uk -vartani (1.8) as an agrahāra to Jayaśarman, a resident of Urāmalla (1. 12). This land had been purchased from the residents of the agrahāra (of Hondevaka) by the grantor---the Mahārāja Hastivarman (1. 8) of Kalinga (1.4), who belonged to the Gānga family (1. 5 f.) and resided at Kalinganagara (1.1). This king receives exactly the same panegyrical epithets us. are applied to Indravarman I at the beginning of his two published grants. The date of Hastivarman's grant was the year 80 (in words and figures) of the reign (1. 23), while IndiaVarman's grants are dated in the years 87 and 91 of the reign. For this reason, and because all the three grants were drafted by the same officer, Hastivarman must have been the predecessor of Indravarman I, and the years of the reign cannot possibly have been those of two individual reigns, but must be referred to the Gånga or Gängeya era, whose earliest known date is now that of Hastivarman's record. The day of the grant was the eighth (tithi) of the dark (fortnight) of Kürttika' (all in words, 1. 13) or the day 8 of Karttika' (1. 23).
The officer who wrote the grant of Hastivarman and the two grants of Indravarman I, was Vinayachandra, son of Bhanuchandra. In the verse which contains his name, he cails his sovereign Rajasimha, which, accordingly, must have been a biruda both of Hastiverman and of his successor Indravarman I. According to verse 5, Hastivarman had the additional surname Raņabhita. The same curious expression, which at first sight does not look very complimentary, but may have to be understood in a moral sense, occurs in two copper-plate grants as the name of a member of the dynasty of Sailodbhava ; see verse 6 of the Buguda plates, above, Vol. III, p. 43, and of the Pärikud plates, Vol. XI, p. 284.
The subjoined grant does not mention the name of its engraver ; but I use this opportunity for again drawing attention to an error which dies hard, and crops up once more in the transla
1 Above, Vol. II, p. 127 ff. 1 See the preceding note, and the Parli-Kimedi plates, Ind. Ant., Vol. XVI, P 134.
+ Vorso 4 of the subjoined grant is identical with line 23 f. of the Achyutapuram plates, and with linu 19 f. of the Parla-Kimedi plates, of In:Iravarman I.
2 z
