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No. 26.] THE SARKHO PLATES OF RATNADEVA II OF (CHEDI) YEAR 880.
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Vēdas, and is the great-grandson of Bhata Divakarabarmman, grandson of the upādhyāya Prabhākarasarmman and son of the upādhyāya Anukulamisra. (Ll. 31-32.) So (you) should live here in happiness, having timely paid to this person) all the
dues as enjoined. (V. 22.) The queen (mahishi), the crown-prince (yuvarāja), the ministers (mantrin) and the priest (purohita) along with the ritviks. ......and the dharmajñas with the pradështris.
(V. 23.) All the heads (adhyaksha) of departments along with the clerks (karana), the commander-in-chief (8ēnāpati) along with the heads of military associations (sainika-sangha-mukhya), the ambassadors (duta) with the officers of the secret service (gūdha-purusha) and the political advisers (mantrapālas), as well as other subordinates of the king, as also the future kings engaged in their appropriate places-(all of them) he (i.e., the donor) sees......, addresses and orders -
(V. 24.) Having regard to us and also considering the blame attaching to the person who deprives a gift, this should always be protected by you.
(V. 25.) He who praises us in our consideration that the protection (of a gift) is much more glorious than the gift itself........
(Here follow vv. 26-31 which are some of the customary ones occurring in landgrants.)
(V. 32.) Thus says the mighty king after duly considering .......... if one does not feel encouraged in mind to make & grant ...
[Here occurs v. 33 which is again of the same group as vv. 26-31.] (L. 49.) The year 13, on the 2nd (?) day of Kārttika. By this, copper-plate 1.........
No. 26.--THE SARKHO PLATES OF RATNADEVA II OF THE (CHEDI) YEAR 880.
BY PROF. V. V. MIRASHI, M.A., NAGPUR. This set of two copper-plates was found in 1916 in a tank called Gadhia in Sarkho', a village near Jānjgir in the Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh, C.P. Mr. Lochan Prasad Pandeya, Honorary Secretary of the then Chhattisgarh Gaurava Prachāraka Mandali (now Mahākosala Historical Society), came to know of them in 1925 and took immediate steps to acquire them for his Society. They are now in the possession of the Society at Bilaspur. Mr. Pandeya has published them in the Hindi Monthly Mädhuri of Lucknow (Vol. V, pp. 317-22). As the plates had not, however, been edited in any research journal, I requested my friend, Mr. W. G. Mandape, B.A., LL.B., Additional District and Sessions Judge at Bilāspur, to procure them for me. I feel highly obliged to him for doing so and to the Mahākõsala Historical Society for kindly permitting me to edit them.
They are two substantial plates measuring 13.5" in length, 8.6" in breadth and 1" in thickness. The first plate weighs 174 tolas and the second 18H4 totas. There is a hole .6" in diameter at the centre of the top of each plate for the ring which must have originally connected them. But no such ring or seal has yet been discovered. The edges of the plates are raised into rims for the protection of letters. There are 36 lines in all, 18 being inscribed on the inner side of each plate.
The class of officers called pradeshtri is referred to in the Arthasāstrs of Kautilya and may be identical with priderika of Abóka's inscriptions.-Bhandarkar, Asoka, 1925, pp. 54-55.
1 For the concluding letters anu ni, of. Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, p. 149, n. 3. The figure 1 after 'copper. plate indicates that the charter consisted of only one sheet.
The namo appears Birko in the Degree Map 64 J.
