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No. 43.]
GOKAK PLATES OF DEJJA-MAHARAJA
No. 43.-GOKAK PLATES OF DEJJA-MAHARAJA.
By N. LAKSHMINARAYAN RAO, M.A., OOTACAMUND.
These copper-plates were found in the year 1926 in the house of Mr. Govinda Rao Mutalik Desai of Gokak in the Belgaum District of the Bombay Presidency and are now in the possession of the Karnatak Historical Research Society, Dharwar. The inscription which they bear has been edited in the Karnatak Historical Review but owing to certain inaccuracies which have crept in the reading of the text as given in the Review, in the interpretation of certain passages and in the drawing of inferences in certain cases, I consider it necessary to re-edit the document and I am thankful to the Government Epigraphist for India for giving me an opportunity of doing it in the Epigraphia Indica.
The plates are three in number each measuring about 6" in length and 21" in breadth. The first and the last plate bear writing on the inner face only; the second plate has both the faces engraved. They are all strung together by a circular ring measuring 23" in diameter and having an oval seal attached to it. Together with the ring and the seal they weigh 421 tolas and are very well preserved.
The seal bears in relief the figure of some horned animal which looks like an antelope whose head is bent forward and one of the horns is turned towards the back. The animal is in a moving pose with its right forefoot raised. The donor of the grant which these plates record was a Sendraka and the crest of the Sendrakas was probably an elephant. It is, therefore, difficult to account for the horned animal engraved on the seal unless it is supposed that though the crest was an elephant, the device on the banner of the family was some horned animal like the one represented on the seal. It is not a Rashtrakuta symbol either, though the document was issued in the reign of a king of that dynasty; for the emblem of that family was either Garuda or lion. Cannot this horned animal be taken as a cognisance of a Tirthamkara in view of the fact that the document is a Jaina record? Santinatha, we know, has an antelope for his läñchchhana.
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The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. Except the invocatory and the imprecatory verses the whole record is in prose. It is written in a Southern script which was in use in the Dekkan during the sixth and the seventh centuries of the Christian era. The record is neatly written and resembles the Bādāmi cave inscription of Kirttivarman I which is dated in the Saka year 500, the Mahākuṭa pillar inscription of Mangalesa (602 A. D.), the Kopparam plates and the Aihole inscription of Pulakesin II. The inscription gives us two forms of long a. In one the top is closed and in the other it is left open (compare ächchhettä in line 20 and Aryyanandyacharyya in 1. 10). Initial u is found in unta(kta)-cha (1. 16) and è in Endavirut (1. 13). Among the consonants the letter k is always closed when it is not a conjunct akshara but when it is in combination with some other letters it is open; r is always open. The letters t and n are not looped; the former, however, has a loop when combined with n (e.g., in paryyantam, 1. 13). The letter kh is found in Jambukhanda (1. 9) and in Jalara (1.9). Final t is found in line 20 and final m in lines 2 and 18. As regards orthography it may be noted that consonants are sometimes doubled when preceded by r (see Varddhamana in lines 1 and 3) but sometimes not (e.g., see chatur-vimsati in line 3). The omission of s in bhumi tasya in 1. 17 is probably
1 Vol. I, No. ii, pp. 43 ff.
Bom. Gaz., Vol. I, part ii, p. 292. Sendraka ohief Pogilli (Ind. Ant., Vol. Ibid, p. 386.
Ibid, Vol. XIX, plate facing p. 18. Above, Vol. VI, plate facing p. 6.
The figure of an elephant is found engraved on the inscription of the XIX, p. 143).
Ind. Ant., Vol. X, plate facing p. 58. Above, Vol. XVIII, plate facing p. 259.
