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No. 19.]
SIRODA PLATES OF DEVARAJA.
143
33 mi-dänat para[n-da]namm(danam)-iha lõke na vidyata [*] yah prayachahhati. [bh]. 34 mim hi sarvvān-kāmān-dad[a]ti sab [*] Bahubhir-vvasuda(dha) datta bahubhi35 6-ch-anupälitä [*] yasya yasya yada bhumi[h] tasya tasya tada phalamh [*]
No. 19. SIRODA PLATES OF DEVARAJA.
By C. R. KRISHNAMACHARLU, B.A., MADRAS.
The subjoined inscription is engraved on three copper plates strung together on a ring which bears a circular seal fixed on to it. The plates belong to Mr. Gopala Sinai Gudo and they were discovered during casual excavations made at the village of Siroda de Ponda in the Portuguese territory of Goa. They are rectangular in shape and measure about 5" by 14'. The ring passes through a hole near the proper right-hand top corner of the plates and the cir qular seal attached to it has the relief figure of a swan executed in a conventional style and facing our left.
The plates were first brought to my notice by Mr. Panduranga Pissurlencar, M.A., Archmalogist to the Portuguese Government of Goa in August 1933, at the suggestion of Mr. G. V. Acharya, Curator of the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. In spite of his best efforts Mr.. Pissurlencar could not obtain a loan of the original plates for my examination but sent me only photographs of the inscribed sides of the plates. The photographs were not quite clear and the ink-impressions which Mr. Pissurlencar supplied later on were also not distinct and therefore not helpful. However, at his urgent request I furnished Mr. Pissurlencar, in March 1934, with a short note on the contents of the grant and a tentative transcript of it so far as it could be made out from the photographs. Mr. Pissurlencar utilised this note and transliteration for a note on the grant published by him in Portuguese language in O Oriente Portugues in 1934. But from the early nature of the grant and its mention of a hitherto unknown dynasty, viz., Gömins, I intended to examine the original plates. With the permission of the Director General of Archeology in India I visited Nova Goa in July 1934 and verified the text of the grant with reference to the plates, but for want of facilities I could not get good ink-impressions of these. Subsequently attempts were made in January 1937 through the Government of India to obtain a loan of the plates from the Portuguese Government but these were of no avail as their owner was unwilling to part with them. So the illustrations accompanying the present article had to be based on photographs only. A brief note on these plates was recently contributed by me to the Ninth All-India Oriental Conference under the caption A New Dynasty of the West Coast.'
The characters of the inscription belong to the archaic variety and from their general shape and style of execution they somewhat resemble the script of the Mayidavõlu Plates of the Pallava king Sivaskandavarman1 and more closely that of the Kondamudi Plates of Jayavarman3. There is also a slight resemblance between the characters of this grant and those of the plates of the Pallava kings Vijaya-Skandavarman and Vijaya-Buddhavarman3. All the above charters are written in Präkrit, while the present plates though written in Sanskrit, have some Prakrit ex
1 Above, Vol. VI, pp. 84 ff. and Pls.
2 Ibid., pp. 315 ff. and Pls.
Ibid., Vol. VIII, pp. 143 ff. and Pls.
