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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XXIII.
No. 33.-TWO COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTIONS FROM BERAR.
By Prof. V. V. MIRASHI, M.A., NAGPUR. Two sets of copper-platos, each consisting of three plates, complete with ring and scal, were discovered in 1935 in the possession of a Muhammadan of Sirso, a village two miles north of Murtizāpur, the head-quarters of a talukā of the same name in the Akola District, Berär. They have since been acquired by the Local Government and deposited in the Central Museum, Nagpur. I am obliged to the Curator of the Museum for permission to edit them. To distinguish the sets, both of which were found at Sirso, I name them here as Sisavai grant and Lõhārā grant after the villages granted by them.
A.-Sisavai grant of Govinda III; Śaka Year 729. These are three copper-plates each measuring about 12.6' in length and 6.5" in breadth. Their ends are either raised or thickened for the protection of the writing. The first and third plates are inscribed on the inner side and the second on both the sides. About .6" from the centre of the proper right side of each plate there is a roundish hole about 9" in diameter for the ring which has joined it to other plates of the set. The ends of this ring, which is about 5" in thickness and 2-9" in diameter, are soldered into the socket of a round seal 1:6" in diameter. The latter contains in relief on a countersunk surface the figure of Garula, facing full front and squatting on a lotus. He carries a serpent in each hand. The ring was cut before the plates reached the Museum, but there is no reason to doubt its connection with the grant. The weight of the three plates is 213 tolas and that of the ring and the scal 56 Lolas.
The plates are fairly well preserved. Some letters here and there and especially in the centre of both the sides of the second plate are damaged by verdigris, but they can be read without much difficulty from the traces left behind. There are sixty-two lines in all, of which sixteen are in scribed on the first plate, seventeen and sixteen on the first and second side respectively of the second plate and the remaining thirteen on the third plate. The letters are beautifully formed and deeply engraved. Some of them can be marked on the back of the first and the third plate. Their size varies from 2 to 3". The writer has treated ornamentally the mütrās for medial e, ai, and 7 and the curve for medial i, especially in the last line on each inscribed surface. It may be noted in this connection that the encircling curve for medial short i resembles that seen in the Khămkhēd plates. A floral device is incised to fill up the empty space to the left of the hole opposite 11. 24-26. The writer has inadvertently omitted letters and even words in some places; see e. g., °py-akrishna-charito bhuri in l. 2. In some cases these mistakes are corrected by incising the omitted letter immediately below; see e.g., va in drisht-āšū-radhayah in l. 17, ni in nijām and pa in naya-paro both in 1. 25. In a few cases letters are upnecessarily repeated; see e.g., py-amalaya in l. 7.
The characters are of the North Indian alphabet and resemble those of the Nēsario and Rādhanpur plates of Govinda III. The forms of the initial i in ira (1. 8), the rare jh in nirjhara (1. 11), th in yathā (1. 33) and of ph in phalakë (1. 22) are noteworthy. The superscript r everywhere appears above the line ; see e.g., inndur-yathā (1. 15). The form of the superscript is not different from that of ņ; see chanchalait-cha (1. 50). A final consonant is generally indicated by a slanting stroke to the left of its vertical. The sign of risarga is in many places used as a mark of
1 Above, Vol. XXII, p. 93. *G. H. Khare-Sourecse, the Mediaral History of the Derean (Marath), Vol. T., pp. 15 f. 3 Above, Vol. VI, pp. 239 tf.
