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No. 21.)
SOHAWAL COPPEB-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF SARVANATHA.
127
13 et gaan ni wafafar ( 1 2 eft) = a poo po
(T*) que afe e .. [*] 14 स्वहस्तो मम महासामन्तमहाराजध्रुवसेनस्व - दूतको रुद्रधरः [1"] लिखित (@)
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No. 21.--THE SOHAWAL COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF MAHARAJA
SARVANATHA--THE YEAR 191.
BY R. R. HALDER, RAJPUTANA MUSEUM, AJMER.
This inscription, which is published here for the first time, was discovered at Sohäwal in the Baghelkhand tract of the Central India Agency. It records a grant engraved on two copper-plates, which were brought to the Rājputāna Museum, Ajmer, by Thakur Saheb Gopal Singh of Kharwă (in Ajmer-Merwāra) for decipherment. An abstract of the contents of the inscription was published by Rai Bahadur Gourishankar Hirachand Ojha, Curator of the Museum, in the Annual Report of the Museum for the year ending 31st March 1924.
The copper-plates are bored at the top, and their thick as well as somewhat raised edges have largely contributed towards the excellent preservation of the writing on them. The ring, which must have passed through the hole, and the seal, if there was any, are missing. The first plate bears inscription on one side only, while the other on both the sides, though it contains only five lines of writing on the back. The plates measure 7}" x 55" each and weigh about 21 lbs. or 95 tolas. The average size of the letters is ".
The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets (Gupta-lipi), being almost similar to those of the Allahābād pillar inscription of Samudragupta. Excepting the usual benedictory and imprecatory Verses which occur in 11. 21-27, the document is written in Sanskrit prose.
As regards orthography, some of the points may be noted here :(1) Consonants are mostly doubled when combined (i) with a superscript r, as for instance,
in care: (1.7), °CFT (1. 9), arma: (1. 10), af (1. 32), AUT or AT (1. 33), etc.; and (ii) with a subscript r, as in utro (11. 1, 2, 4, etc.),
faraf (1. 29), 07 (1. 32), etc. (2) The conjunct consonant is employed with the subscript y in 'agua (11. 3, 4, 5 and 6); (3) the occasional use of ba for va, as in qigai (1. 21), # THT° (1. 27), and vice tersa, as in afar (1. 15) and actua (
130); (4) the use of n instead of anusrāra before &, as in 161€ (1.8), 9 8741° (1.17), and before l in afara (1. 19); (5) the use of instead of Tin 04 (1. 22); and (6) the use of upadhmāniya in o xogar (1. 19).
