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No. 22.
SURAT PLATES OF KARKKARAJA SUVARNAVARSHA; SAKA 743. 189
11. 38-39 and 41-42. V. 25 alone is a new one and its historical significance has been discussed already.
After recording the grant in prose the charter recites the usual imprecatory verses and con. cludes with a couple of verses in praise of Jainism. The charter claims to contain an autograph of Karkka, but it should have been in proto-Kanarese characters as is the case with his signmanuals in his Baroda and Nausāri grants. It may be doubted, therefore, whether the duct of the words 'Svahastoyaṁ mama sri-Karkkarājasya śrimad-Indrarāja-sūnõh' really represents that of Karkka's own handwriting. The charter was drafted by Nārāyana, son of Kulaputraka siiDurgabhatta, who was the chief foreign minister of Karkka. He is obviously a brother of Nēmāditya, who hud drafted the two other known copper-plate grants of the present donor,-the Baroda plates of 811-2 and the Nausäri plates of 817 A. D.; for, the latter two documents describe Nēmāditya &s a son of the foreign minister Kulaputraka Durgabhatta. The present charter shows that the career of Nārāyaṇa was more successful than that of his brother Nēmāditya, since he succeeded his father in the important post of the Chief Foreign Minister.
Most of the copper-plate grants of old were drafted by a sandhivigrahika er foreign minister. I have not yet seen any attempt to explain the connection of the office of sandhivigrahika with the drafting of land grants. The connection is, however, established not only by copper-plates, but is also known to Smriti literature. An anonymous verse quoted by Vijñānēsvara on Yäjñavalkya-smriti, I, 320, says:
Sandhivigrahakäri tu bhavēd=yas-tasys lēkhakah
Svayam rājñā samādishtaḥ sa likhēd-rājaśāsana Vijñānēsvara himself says, Sandhivigrahakāriņā (fäsanan kärayet) nanyena kēnachit.' Yajñavalkya lays down in I, 319 that a land grant should contain an account of the genealogy of the donor. A glance at the numerous grants that have been published shows that this dictum of the sage was usually observed in practice. The genealogy had naturally to refer to the exploits of the ancestors of the donor, material for which was expected to be preserved in the archives of the foreign office, and its head was, therefore, expected to draft the charter containing the names and exploits of the donor and his ancestors.
Of the localities mentioned in the plates almost all can be identified with certainty. NāgaArikā is modern Nausāri, about 20 miles to the south of Surat. The Pūrāvi is obviously the river Pūrņā on the banks of which Nausāri is situated. Of the two villages Ambăpăţaka and Sambapura, the latter is untraceable, but the former is obviously the same as Amadpur, situated on the Pūrāvi or Pürņā and about 5 miles from Nausāri. Mr. M. K. Nadkarni, the Subha of Nausāri, informs me that this village was some centuries ago called Amrapura according to the local tradition. The river Vankikā, on the banks of which the army of Karkka was encamped when the gift was made, is the Vanki creek about 30 miles to the south of Nausāri. The only place that thus remains to be identified is Sambapura. This village was to the north of Ambāpātaka or modern Amadpur and, therefore, it cannot be identified with the village of Sampur in Kamrej Taluka, since it is 35 miles from Nausāri. It has now probably gone out of existence.
TEXT.1 [The following metres have been used Anushţubhvv. 2, 24, 32, 41-45 and 49. Arya :-Vv. 12-15, 22, 27-29, 33, 40 and 50. Indravajra :-v. 23. Upajāli :-Vv. 5 and 20. Giti -v. 8. Pushpitāgrā-v. 48. Vambasthavila :--v.l. Vasantatılakā vv. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 16, 25, 26, 30, 36-38. Sārdulavikridita -vv. II, 18 and 31. Sragdhari.-vv. 17, 19, 34 and 35.]
From the original plates.
