Epigraphia Indica Vol 19

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 32

No. 2] BARAH COPPER-PLATE OF BHOJADEVA; VIKRAMA-SAMVAT 893. 15
I now give my reading and translation of the record.
TEXT.
1. Sam 10 ashaḍasa masasa di 20 uttaraphagune ise kshuņami
2. khade kue [mu]rodasa marjhakasa Kanishkasa rajami [to]yamda cha bhui dapamukha Hipea Dhiasa sarvastivadativadhase pujane Liaka
3. sa kaha[tra]pasa upakachaa mad[u] kata dana anugraheņa va[rdha]se Saghamitrarajasa
TRANSLATION.
Anno 10, on the 20 day of the month Ashadha, in Uttaraphalguni, at this instant this well was dug, in the reign of the lord, the master of treasure Kanishka,-and further a "watergiver "as the gift of Hipe Dhia for the increase of the Sarvästivada, in honouring of the Kshatrapa Liaka, for the benefiting of his mother; the gift was made by the favour and for the increase of Samghamitrarāja.
No. 2.-BARAH COPPER-PLATE OF BHOJADEVA; VIKRAMA-SAMVAT 893.
BY HIRANANDA SASTRI.
This copper-plate, as the District Magistrate of Cawnpore wrote to the Director General of Archeology in India, while forwarding it for examination, was discovered on the 17th of March 1925 in the house of one Muhammad Baqar when the foundations of a new house were being dug up in the village of Barah which is said to have been inhabited during the Mughal period and lies on the south side of the main road from Cawnpore to Kalpi at a distance of 23 miles westsouth-west from the District Head-Quarters and 4 miles east of Akbarpur with which it is connected by a branch metalled road. It measures 233" by 168", being " thick and weighs 1,250 tolas. The three big holes drilled at the left side of the plate show that there must have been a seal attached to it, though it is not forthcoming now. The plate was thoroughly cleaned under the direction of the Director General of Archæology in India and is now preserved in the Provincial Museum, Lucknow. I edit the record from the original plate as well as from the excellent estampages kindly supplied to me by Sir John Marshall the Director General of Archaeology in India. Only one side of the plate is inscribed, there being 16 lines of writing on it. The size of the letters which are well shaped and deeply cut averages from 1" to 1" in height, and 7" to " in breadth. The record is written in the Nagari script of the period and in Sanskrit prose, excepting a somewhat defective sloka at the end (11. 15-16) which gives the name of the Dutaka.
There are no orthographical peculiarities worth noting excepting the use of the upadhmaniya in 11. 7 and 12 and the usual employment of va for ba as well as the doubling of t before ra as in puttra (1. 3). The year when the grant under notice was issued is given in 1. 16 where it is expressed by letters or letter numerals and a numerical figure. That it is 893 of the Vikrama era is pretty certain but the way in which it is written does not appear to be so. As put down here it would read samvatsro hra (i.e.) 9083. The t in the ligature taro should go with samvat and the symbol sro be taken as representing hundred like the old symbol. The next symbol undoubtedly represents 8. Thus, I think, the year should be read1 as samvat 100x 8 (i.e. 800) 90 3 (i.e., 893).
The object of the inscription is to record that Bhojadeva granted the agrahāra called Valākāgrahāra which lay in the Udumbara-vishaya of the Kalañjara-mandala in the Kanyakubja-bhukti to the Brahmanas born of the family of Bhatta-kachara-svāmin whe
1 I have read it in consultation with Rai Bahadur Gaurishankar H. Ojha.