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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL.XXI.
No. 13.-BAIGRAM COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE GUPTA-YEAR 128.
BY RADHAGOVINDA BASAK, M.A., DACCA. This copper-plate was discovered in 1930 near & wooden structure which surrounded an old well opened by some tenants of Rai Sahib Kumudnath Das, Zamindar of Hili, while excavating a tank at Baigram (P. O. Hili) in the District of Bogra, Rājshāhi Division, Bengal. One more copper-plate, which was found along with it, was taken away by the coolies and has not yet been secured. The document under publication was kept with one Poñatu Akandar till it was brought to Hili early this year by Babu Krishna Chandra Saha, Manager of the Rai Sahib's estate. Afterwards Babu Jyotirindranath Das, Advocate, High Court, Calcutta, presented it to the Gauda Research Society, Howrah, and it is now in the possession of that Society. Babu Niradabaran Mishra Chakravarti, Secretary of the Society, brought it to my notice and gave me a set of its estampages on which my reading of the inscription is based. It is very gratifying, indeed, that within the last few years we have recovered eight valuable records of the Gupta period from North Bengal itself (i.e., ancient Pundravardhana-bhukti). Out of these eight documents, seven have already been published, viz., the Dhanaidaha copper-plate inscription of the time of Kumāragupta I: the year 113, the Five Damodarpur copper-plate inscriptions and the Pāhāļpur copper-plate grant of the Gupta year 159. The eighth forms the subject of the present paper.
Like the seven charters already published, this inscription is also a deed of sale and registers the purchase by private persons of khila (fallow) and västu (homestead) land belonging to the State for the purpose of donation to a temple. The Faridpur copper-plate grants, marked A, B and C by Pargiter, are also of the same type. The general procedure followed in ancient Bengal for purchasing State lands by private persons as laid down in this grant is identical with that given in the Damodarpur grants or in the Pāhāļpur copper-plate inscription. The intending purchaser of a State land had to submit an application to the administrative authority concerned and the Government had to refer the matter to the record-keepers before giving the required sanction.
The plate measures 9" x 5", approximately, and bears writing on both the sides of it; the obverse side has fifteen lines and the reverse only ten. The left side of it is somewhat protuberant in the middle and this part was circular at its end with a portion cut off and lost. The hole here would show that a seal was probably attached to the plate, though it is not now forthcoming. The writing is well executed and the document is fairly well preserved.
The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets of the 5th century A.D. and are almost similar to those used in the Damodarpur plates Nos. 1 and 2, which also belong to the same period. As in the Damodarpur, the Dhanaidaha and the Pāhārpur copper-plates, here, too, the medial à is at times indicated by means of a hook-stroke attached to the lower right side of an akshara as, for example, in grāmika (1.2). The form of rū in rūpakān (11. 6 and 14) is also noteworthy. As one would ordinarily expect in the inscriptions of this period, the letter b is distinguished from v in this document also (see, for example, Brāhmaṇā l. 2 or bõdhayanti I. 3). The sign for the conjunct letters hm and hy appears to be almost identical. The form of the four-lettered conjunot achchhy oocurring in the word apaviñchchhya (1. 19) may be noted The form of the medial é and o in the letters m, i and requires attention (see, e.g., mekaṁ in l. 9,
1. Above, Vol. XVII, pp. 345 ff. • Ibid., Vol. XX, pp. 59 ff.
*Ibid., VoL XV, Pp. 113 11. . Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIX, pp. 1938.
