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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
VOLUME XXII.
No. 1.-THE TEXT OF THE SOHGAURA PLATE.
BY K. P. JAYASWAL, M.A., BARRISTER-AT-LAW, PATNA.
1. The Sohgaurā platel discovered in 1894 in the district of Gorakhpur and presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Dr. Hoey, is one of the undoubted pre-Asökan documents. Fleet, R. D. Banerji, and myself have had occasions to comment on the age of the writing. In Dr. Fleet's opinion, it could even be placed earlier than 320 B.C.:
* The standard of the Brahmi characters of the inscription refers it to at any rate an early date in the Maurya period, B. C. 320 to about 180; and the method of spelling presented in it, along with the use of those characters and the general style of the record, would justify our placing it even before that time."
-JR 48. 1907, p. 509. 2. The inscription, however, has not been solved. Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar impressed on me the necessity of giving my attention to it. The discovery of the Mahästhän stone which has now been edited in this journal (above, Vol. XXI, pp. 83 ff.), made it necessary to refer to this document. It seems that the reading can be made out now with some certainty.
3. The illustrations are in JRAS. 1907, plate facing p. 510—the Asiatic Society's photograph and Sir George Grierson's electrotype copy. It will be seen that the small-sized le's on the Mahästhān stone and those in our plate agree in shape; and so do the peculiar m forms (Mahästhān, line 2) which are not found in Asöka inscriptions. This m is also found on a Patna glass seal. Both Sohgaură and Mahästhan records have as their subject-matter kothāgāla (koshth-āgāra) which is used in the Kautaliya Arthaśāstra as a technical term for stato store-houses for keeping drarya and grains (Al., chs. 36, 37; pp. 93, 99, 1st ed.) and refer to atyayika (distress).
4. The Sohgaurā plate was cast into several copies and is a public placard issued by the Council of Ministers of Srāvasti, and is a document, relating to famine relief measures. It reads:
1 References : 1894, Bengal Asiatic Society's Proceedings, pp. 84 ff. (V. Smith and Hörnle) ; 1896, Ind. Anh. 261 (Bühler); 1907, JR.48., 509 (Fleet).
JBORS., VI, 203. The date assigned there is c. 300 B.O. 3 JBORS., X. 189, 192.
