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No. 42.]
FOUR GANGA COPPER-PLATE GRANTS.
261
No. 42.-FOUR GANGA COPPER-PLATE GRANTS
By S. N. CHAKRAVARTI, M.A., CALCUTTA.
The four sets of copper-plate grants belonging to the Ganga kings of Kalinga were acquired through Mr. S. Rajaguru, Municipal Councillor, Parlakimedi, Ganjam. They have been found, as Mr. Rajaguru was told by the owner of the plates, in some villages of Northern Ganjam, and were purchased by Mr. N. G. Majumdar, M.A., Superintendent, Archeological Survey of India. They are now deposited in the Archæological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta. I edit the charters by the kind permission of Mr. Majumdar.
A.-Plates of Mahārāja Jayavarmadēva.
The copper-plates which bear the subjoined inscription are three in number and measure about 57" by 31". Their rims are not raised. Each plate is inscribed on both sides. The inscription is damaged in several places. But practically the whole of it can be made out quite satisfactorily. The ring on which the plates were strung is about 3" in diameter. The small oval seal, below which the ends of the ring are secured, measures about " by ". It is damaged and the emblem on it is no more visible. The weight of the three plates, with ring and seal, is about 70 tolas.
The alphabet of the inscription resembles that of the Dhanantara Plates of Samantavarman;1 and may be assigned to the 7th Century A.D. The language is Sanskrit. Except three of the customary verses in lines 28-35 the inscription is in prose. As regards orthography the following peculiarities call for remark :-v and b are not distinguished, both being indicated by the sign for v. A consonant after r is doubled only in a few instances, e.g., Gokarnnesvara (1. 5), and ki(ki)rttayō (1. 35). The letter t preceding r is doubled in sakti-ttraya- (1.9), etc. Visarga has been wrongly used in bhagavataḥs-char-achara- (11. 1-2), -pitriḥ- (1. 11), and vehubhiḥr-vasudha (1. 28), and wrongly dropped in Sagar-ädibhi (1. 29). The sign for final t has been used twice, though wrongly, in -adhishthänätd-bhagavataḥ (1. 1) and sa-karaṇāt (1. 14).
The inscription is of the Ganga King of Kalinga, Mahārāja Jayavarmadēva, who was a devout worshipper of the lord Gokarnņēśvara, residing on the summit of the Mahendra mountain. From his residence at Svötaka the king by this document informs his officials and the inhabitants concerned in the Ndada ringa(?)-vishaya, that he gave the village of Bhusunda in the said province to Ravisarman, a Brahmana of the Kasyapa-göttra, the Vajasaneya-charana and the Kanva-sakha, who was a resident of the Pratishthana-vishaya of the bhaṭṭāraka Gunesvara. The dutaka was the Mahāsāmanta Pürnpadēva who had the title of Pañchamahāsabda. The grant was written by Khanda, the son of the Mahasandhivigrahin Śrīsāmanta and engraved by Vichitra
hasta.
I am inclined to identify Jayavarman of the present grant with Jayavarman, brother of Anantavarman of the Parlakimedi plates, which record the gift of the village Tālatthērē in the district of Krōshtukavarttani by Anantavarman, son of Devendravarman, at the request of his brother Jayavarman, to Vishnusōmacharya, a Brahmana of the Parasara-gotra, who was an inhabitant of the village of Śrangātikā in the district of Kamarupa or Assam.
1 Above, Vol. XV, pp. 275 ff.
[See p. 262, nn. 8 and 12 below.-Ed.]
[This may be only a title in which case the name of the official has not been given.-Ed.]
Annual Report of the Assistant superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for the year 1920-21, pp. 15, 93; R. D. Banerji, History of Orissa,Vol. I, pp. 232-33; J. A. H. R. S., Vol. II, pp. 273 ff.
D
