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No. 33.]
AN UNFINISHED VAKATAKA PLATE FROM DRUG.
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never completed or, in any case, the present plate was rejected for some unknown reason. Nearly all the charters of the Vakatakas contain the word drishtam, with or without some word like siddham or svasti, at the beginning or in the margin. The only exceptions so far known are the Bālāghāt plates of Prithivishēņa II and the Riddhapura plates of Prabhāvatiguptā. Of these, the former is known to be an incomplete charter. In the case of the latter the word was probably not inserted for want of space. As in the Bāläghāt platas of Prithivishēna II there is in the present plate sufficient space for three letters in the beginning of the first line. If the record on the plate had been completed, the word drishtam would have been prefixed to it as in so many other records of the Väkātakas. The following remarks of Prof. Kielhorn about the Bālāghăț plates would equally apply to our plate--"I am convinced now that drishtam (and the Prakrit dittham of the Mayidavõlu and Hira badagalli plates) must really be taken in its ordinary sense of seen' and that it is similar to the modern true copy' or examined' of official letters or Government orders. Such a remark could, of course, have been affixed or prefixed to a document only when it was finished and it is missing here, because our grant was not completed." Another point to be noted in the case of the present plate is that it leaves space sufficient for five letters at the end of the last line. The word Gautamiputrasya which follows Bhavanaga-dauhitrasya in other Vākātaka records, could very well have been written in that space. In fact the engraver seems to have begun to incise the word; for faint traces of the top portion of the first syllable of that word can be noticed on the plate. That the engraver left so much space at the end seems to show that he received an order to stop before he could complete that line. Whether the record was inscribed on another set of plates cannot be determined at present.
Let us next try to answer the second question- Who was the king that intended to issue this charter ?' The general resemblance between the characters of the present plate and those of the Dudia and Riddhapur plates seem to indicate that it might be Pravarasēna II. But almost all the known complete charters of Pravarasēns II were issued from Pravarapura, & city which he himself seems to have founded and made his capital. It seems that Nandivardhana was the capital of the Vākāțakas before the time of Prayerasēna II; for the earliest grant of the dynasty discovered so far, viz., the Poona plates of the queen mother Prabhāvatiguptă, was issued from Nandivardhana.? So it was Pravarasēna II who shifted the capital from Nandivardhana to the newly founded city of Pravarapura. If he had intended to grant the present plate, Pravarapurs and not Padmapura, should have, in all probability, been the place of issue. Besides, the palæographical evidence detailed above seems to show that the present plate may be assigned to a slightly later date. Padmapura is not known to have been a holy place (tirtha); nor is a
1 Cf. the Chammak and Siwani plates of Pravarasēna II ; Fleet, 0.1.., Vol. III, Nos. 58 and 56. *Cf. the Dudia plates of Pravarasēna II, above, Vol. III, p. 268. • Cf. the Poona plates of Prabhāvatigupta, ibid., Vol. XV, p. 39. • Above, Vol. IX, pp. 267 ff.
Ibid., Vol. IX, pp. 268-269.
• The only exceptions are (1) the Siwani plates which, however, do not mention any place of issue and (2) the recently discovered Tirodi plates (above, pp. 171 ff.) which, as I have shown in my article on them, were probably issued from a holy place. In the case of the Patna Museum plate (J. B.O.R.S., Vol. XIV, p. 465) and the Ramtek plate (List of O. P. Inscriptions, Second Edition, p. 4), the first plates of their sets being missing, the place of insne is not known.
Rai Bahadur Hiralal has identified this place with Nagardhan 4 miles from Ramtek, but it is more likely to be Nändpur about 15 miles to the north of Ramtek where extensive ruins can still be seen and where two seals inscribed in characters of the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. have been found. (See J. P. 4. 8. B., Vol. XXIX, pp. 159 ff.)
Mr. K. N. Dikshit has conjecturally identified this with Paynär in Wardha distriot where there is a high strong fort overlooking a river and considerable ruins (ibid., Vol. XXIX, p. 109).
