________________
968
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXIV.
No. 38.-MASULIPATAM PLATES OF AMMARAJA II.
BY B. V. KRISHNA RAO, M.A., B.L., RAJAHMUNDRY. This interesting record of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty was first noticed by the late Robert Sewell when it was found lying in the record room of the District Court of Kistna at Masulipatam. It is not known where the plates were originally discovered and how and when they reached the District Court of Kistna. Dr. J. F. Fleet,.who examined these plates at the instance of Robert Sewell, described them as follows:
"A set of five copper-plates, each about 111" long by 53' broad with a seal which bears the usual Chalukyan Boar, the motto Sri-Tribhuvanāṁkusa, the moon, the sun, & closed umbrella or an elephant-goad and a floral device ....... .. The whole inscription is very much corroded and very difficult to read."
These plates came to be included in the collection of the Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, in 1908, and marked as C. P. No. 8 of 1908-09. The late Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Sastri described the plates thus: They consist " of five copperplates (with raised rims) of which the two exposed sides are blank. They are strung on a massive ring whose ends are soldered into the bottom of a circular seal which bears in high relief on a countersunk surface the legend Sri-Tribhuvan[äkuóa, the standing boar, the elephant-goad, two fly-whisks, the sun and the moon and the lotus flower. The writing on the plates is much worn out and where it is clear the rust has so firmly settled down in the depths of the letters that even the process of allowing the plate to boil in a thick solution of tamarind and salt has not effectively removed it". I now edit this inscription from the ink impressions and photographs supplied to me by Dr. N. P. Chakravarti. The inscription on these plates is written in the Telugu characters of the tenth century. The letters are beautifully engraved; and the plates used for the purpose of the grant are perhaps the largest ever used for the charters of Ammarāja II. The writing on the plates is for a greater part not well preserved : particularly on plates si-b, iji-b, io-a and iv-6. Some of the characters employed call for a few remarks. Special signs are used for the final n (in māsān, 11. 9, 15 and 17), but no special sign is employed for the final t, which is, however, denoted by the ordinary sign for ta with the sign of virāma above it. Initial vowels a and a (11. 56 and 57), i (11. 32-34 and 42), i (1.60) and 2 (1.17) also appear in the record and they represent the forms of the transitional period. Orthographical mistakes are few and in one or two cases they appear to be due to the scribe. Thus we find in fi byo (1.52) the palatal sibilant used for lingual, and in sadrisau (1. 47) the palatal sibilant used for the dental. Signs for both the pihvāmūliya and the upadhmānīya are found in the present record, the former in l. 11 and the latter in 1. 38.
The inscription is written in Sanskrit, partly in prose and partly in verse ; and there are altogether twenty-one stanzas including the usual imprecatory verges in lines 65-68 at the end. The inscription also contains some archaic Telugu words, e.g., duba (1. 57), paduva (11. 58 and 60), prānta-parti (1. 58) and yisu pakatta (1. 57), the exact meanings of which are not quite clear. These words occur in the description of the boundaries of the village granted.
The inscription consists apparently of two parts; and though it records a charity to the Jains religion, it opens with an invocation to the god Vishnu, the wielder of the fierce śārnga bow which
* List of Inscriptions and Sketches of the Dynasties of South India, Vol. II, p. 13; No. 84.
Ibid. . Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, 1909, pp. 10 and 108.
