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No. 11.)
AMODA PLATES OF THE HAIHAYA KING PRITHVIDEVA L.
78
(Ll. 32-44). It has been said by the venerable Vyasa [here follow eight of the usual imprecatory verses). Written by the illustrious Sändhivigrahika Jogõsvara of the twice-born race.
No. 11.--AMODA PLATES OF THE HAIHAYA KING PRITHVIDEVA I:
CHEDI SAMVAT 881. BY RAI BAHADUR HIRALAL, B.A. (RETIRED DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, CENTRAL PROVINCES).
These coppor-plates were found in a field in Amoda village, about a foot below the surface. Amodi is about 10 miles from Janjgir, the headquarters of a tahsil of the same name in the Bilaspur District of the Central Provinces. These are two plates, each measuring 11' x 77", the total weight of both being 107 tolas. Each has a hole, the first at the bottom and the second at the top, for being strung with a seal which is lost. They are inscribed on one side only, the first containing 20 and the second 21 lines. The plates when found about May 1924 were deposited in the Nagpur Museum, whence I obtained them for deciphering. The Accompanying facsimile copy was prepared from impressions taken by Mr. Abdus Suboor, Coin Expert of the same museum.
The writing is in a fairly good state of preservation, except where the metal has been corroded. The size of the letters everages t'except in the last 5 lines in which it is reduced to it. The characters are Devanagari of the Kalachuri type with the usual peculiarities found in the records of the kings of Tripuri and Ratanpur. No difference has been made between ba and va, both being expressed by the sign for va. The dental sibilant has been usually employed for the palatal and vice versa, for which the text may be read, where the correct sibilant has been put in brackets, just opposite the incorrect one. In many words the dental n has been used for the anusvāra, e.g., in line 5 vansa stands for vamba and in l. 8 sinhāḥ for sinhäh. The letters ta, ra and na have been so formed that they are easily mistaken one for the other, and so is the case with pa and ya, and also with va, cha and dha. The letters a, i, kha, na, dha, bha, ra and to bear antique forms. The record is composed in Sanskrit verse and prose, there being alte gether 22 verses of which 14 at the commencement are devoted to the eulogy of the donor and his ancestors and the remaining at the end to imprecation, benediction, and mention of officials like the minister for peace and war, under whom the department of gifts was usually placed, and the writer and engraver of the charter. Between these two sets of verses is placed the business portion in prose. The salutation to the deity in the beginning and the year at the end are also given in prose.
The proper object of the charter is to record the grant of a village named Vasaha ur Basahā of the Yayapara-mandala to a Brāhmaṇa named Kötava, son of Chatta and grandson of Thirāicha (who had come from a place named Hastiyāmatha), on Sunday, the 7th tithi of the dark hall of Phålguna in the Chôdi year 831, on the oceasion of the dedication of a Chatushkikā or hall resting on 4 pillars to the god Vankēsvara at Tumāņaka, by Prithvidēva I, son of Ratnadöva, and queen Nonnala, daughter of Vajuvarman, prince of Komd-mandala. The genealogy is traced to Kärtavirya, who imprisoned Rāvana, violently shaken to and fro by the waters of the great Rēvā. In his family were born the Haihaya kings, in whose line Kókkala became the lord of Chodi and other countries. He raided the treasuries of the Karnata, Vanga, Gurjara, Konkaņa, and Sakambharf kings and also of those born of the Turushka and Raghu families. He had 18 sons of whom the eldest became the king of Tripart, while the others were made feudatory chiefs near about. To one of the younger
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