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No. 19.)
TWO LOST PLATES OF NIDHANPUR COPPER-PLATES.
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annoyed at the Buddhist predominance in their own place (which was most likely in Mithila) came to settle in Kamarüpa that was free from Buddhism and the rulers whereof were reputed to be the patrons of Brāhmaṇas, the custodians of the old faith :- hence this grant was made to these Brāhmaṇas and the name agrahāra added to Mayūraśālmali supports what has been stated above.
The locality of the grant, though it cannot be positively ascertained, must have been very near the precincts of Karna-Suvarna, as the term Gängiņi occurring in the description of the boundary of the grant indicates that the locality must be in some region where the word in its modern form of Gängină exists even now. In modern Kämrūp the term is unknown-whereas in the locality near about Karatöyă (which was the western boundary of the ancient Kämarupa), Gänginā' is still in use-80 the grant must have been located there! and hence near Karna-Suvarna.
How the plates containing the record could be found in Sylhet has yet to be answered. It is stated in the third plate (1. 12) that Manorathasvāmin of the Kätyāyana-gotra was a 'paffakapati,' i.e., the holder of the copper-plates, evidently, as he was one of the leading men of the locality. There was still another person Sadhăranasvămin, apparently, the foremost of them all, as his name mentioned in the first place would show, who was also termed' patakapati': and though probably the plates were originally kept in the joint or alternate charge of both, yet they must have fallen eventually into the hands of the heirs of Manõrathasvämin of the Kätyāyana-gora who were among the Brāhmaṇas who migrated to Sylhetas is inferred from the mention of 'Katyayana' amongst the 10 gotras of the Sampradayika Brāhmaṇast of Sylhet. The Sāmpradāyika Brāhmaṇas designate themselves as "Maithilas" (i.e. belonging to Mithilā) and so do most of the Brāhmapas even of the modern Kämrüp, who, as well as the Sampradayikas, follow the smriti (law) of the Mithilā school. It is quite possible that in course of time these settlers in Sylhet lost the memory of the place from which they had come, and the oblivion was helped by the eventual loss of the copperplates which they had taken with them to Sylhet and which have lately been discovered about ten feet below the surface of the earth. Or, it may be that the migrators having belonged originally to Mithilā gave themselves out as 'Maithila' when they settled in Sylhet.
One thing worth remarking in these two plates is the abbreviations used: Sva' is written for Svāmi, amba' for 'ek-āṁsa' and 'götr-arnsa' for 'gðra-sahit=ādhy-ardilh-amba'. A remark made in my previous article regarding the defective nature of the Aryā metre which has been copiously used in these inscriptions, should be amended here : the remark was based on the
It may be also that the settlers might have been students who had come to Kämarāpa for study (vido extract from Watters' Yuan Chuang, above).
* In the copper-plate inscriptions of Vanamáladévs (vide Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1840. pp. 786 et seq.) we find 'Chandrapari' south-east of the grant, a village named Abhisura valaka, west of Trisrota. This Tristain the modern Toesta', a river in Rangpur, Bengal, and is a little east of the river Karatoyi. It this Chandrapari be the Chandrapuri (pari in Vanamals's inscriptions may be an error of the reader for puri, and the reading is full of errors) of Bhiskaravarman's inscriptions, within which district the grant was ituated, then what has been stated here would become substantiated.
In fact in my former article Ganzinika' was deemed as one of the factors in coming to the decision that the grant belonged to Karna-Suvarna (side footnoto No. 3, p. 66, Ep. Ind., Vol. XII).
These tun gotras are: Vatas, Vataya, Bharadvaja, Krishnatreys, Parafara, Katyayana, Kidyap, Maudgalya, Svarna-Kausiks and Gautama. Of these, seven gotras are found mentioned in the plates, exactly as stated above • Vates' and 'Parabara' are mentioned in the plate as atsa' sud. Pärasarya' (atronymie forms): while the remaining götra, vis, Svarpa-Kausika,' is evidently represented by Kausika' in the plates, as the rex.fi/.ion of the götra intoavarna,' rajata,'' ghrita,' etc., did not probably take place then.
The form Sva has in every case been taken &s an abbreviation of Svāmi (in the nominative case singular) as dibai trou 1. 11 where Sådhåra pasvomi occurs as the stributo of ama duayu bhokļa.
