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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
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foundation for the belief in its existence than there would be if somebody were to suggest that an era was instituted to commemorate the conquest of India by Alexander.
The only objection against referring the high dates in Kharðshthi inscriptions to the old Suka era of which I can think, is that it seems difficult to understand why it was not replaced by the Kanishka era. But then we have the analogy of the Gudufara inscription, which shows that the old era had gained such a firm footing in Yusufzai that it survived the introduction of a new, Parthian era. There are, on the whole, no traces of Kanishka and his successors in Yasufzai proper. The capital was no more Pushkalāvati or Shahbāzgahi. Those districts, and the country further to the north, where the Gandhāra school of art had had a richer development than anywhere else, were no more in the centre of political activity. Peshăwar, on the high road to the stronghold of the Kushānas in Badakshān, bad become the most important city in the west, and the route from Taxila to Peshawar did not lead through Yusufzai. That country had been reduced to be an out-of-the-way territory, where Buddhist civilization and art remained, but where political vicissitudes were of little importance. No wonder that the indigenous donors and sculptors went on using the old era, un disturbed by the accession of Kanishka.
TEXT.
1 Maharayasa Gudufarase vasha 20 4 11 2 gambartéarae tilgatimae 1 100 1 1 1 Vesakhas. masasa divase 3 [pratha]me [di i i]ša (diņe] pacbhe Balasamisa [bo]yaņasa 4 par[i]vara [sha]dhad[a]pa sapu ta]dhitasa Mira boyanasa 5 erjhana Kap[sha]sa puyae madu 6 pidu puyae
TRANSLATION (Duting the reign of the Maharaja Gudufara, (in) the year 20, in the hundred-and-third year-103-on the first day-d. 1-of the month Vaisakha, on this paksha-day, the chapel (*) of Balasyāmin the Saviour [is] the pious gift of Mira the Saviour, together with his son and daughter, in honour of Prince Kapsha, in honour of his mother and father,
No, 29.-FOUR BHANJA COPPER-PLATE GRANTS.
BY RAI BAHADUR HIRALAL, B.A., DEPUTY COMMISSIONER (Retired), JUBBULPORE, The Government Epigraphist for India forwarded to me impressions of 4 sets of copperplate grants belonging to the Bhañja dynasty sent to him by the late Mr. Tarini Charan Rath, B.A., Dietrict Munsiff of Aska, Ganjām District. Brief notices in respect of them appeared in Rao Sahib Krishna Sastri's Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1917-18 on pages 12 and 135 ff., paragraphs 10-14, I now edit the charters from the impressions supplied by him, which are reproduced in the accompanying plates.
The Bhanja grants yet discovered number eleven including the present ones, four of which have been edited in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society and the rest in this Journal including the one of the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal, which has been re-edited by Dr. Kielhorn in Volume IX, above. For facility of reference the charters have ben assigned
1 Cf. Chavannes, Thoung Pao II. viii, p. 187.
Şixteen. See Postscript.
