________________
No. 14.]
THREE COPPER-PLATE GRANTS FROM MAYURBHANJ.
147
No. 14. THREE COPPER-PLATE GRANTS FROM MAYURBHANJ.
BY B. C. MAJUMDAR, M.A., Ph.D., VICE-CHANCELLOR, DACCA UNIVERSITY. A.-Adipur Copper-plate of Narendrabhañjadēva.
This is a single plate measuring about 11" by 84". It contains 41 lines of writing engraved on both sides. A circular seal, representing a full-blown lotus, is attached to the middle of the top of the plate. The seal has a diameter of 34", and on its surface is engraved, in relief, inside a raised circular rim, the figure of a humped bull with that of a small crescent above it, and the legend Sri-Narendrabhañjadevasya' below. There is a floral design underneath the legend. The seal bears a very close resemblance to that of Tribhuvana Mahadevi of the Kara dynasty.
The plate was discovered in 1927 by a Kōl peasant in course of digging a field near the village of Adipur in the Pañchpir Sub-division of Mayurbhanj State, and is now preserved in the Mayurbhanj State Museum at Baripada. Mr. K. C. Neogy, the Dewan of the Mayurbhanj State, kindly sent the plate to me for decipherment, and I am editing it from the original.
The plate is in a fair state of preservation, except a small part of the reverse which is badly corroded, with the result that a few letters in the formal portion of the grant are not legible.
The alphabet belongs to the Northern type and resembles that used in the Pala records of the tenth century A.D. It contains numerical symbols for 200, 90, 3 and 1.
The language is Sanskrit. With the exception of eleven verses, including the usual imprecatory verses, the inscription is written in prose. Some of these verses are, however, very faulty, and require addition or omission of letters to suit the requirements of the metre. The author's knowledge of Sanskrit was rather poor and there are many mistakes both in spelling and in grammar.
As regards orthography, b and v are not distinguished; the anusvara is represented in some cases by guttural n (vanse in line 6), while the final dental n is represented by anusvära (satrum in line 11, bhupālām in line 15). Consonants are usually doubled after r, but there are exceptions (krimir-bhütva in line 29). Some other peculiarities seem to have been due to the ignorance of the author. Mention may be made of the use of & for s (asit in line 3, Smara in line 10, prasaktaḥ in line 13, salila in line 20); of ri for ri (kriyate in line 32, ériyam in line 34); of i for (Bhavanisaḥ in line 2, asit in line 3, sariram- in line 31, kirttayo in line 35); and of u for u (purvva in line 17).
As examples of the faulty knowledge of grammar may be mentioned manis-tyägir in line 6, uktañ-cha ddharmma-sastrē in line 24, cheta in line 32, and vindu-llölām in line 33.
The author's scanty knowledge of Sanskrit literature is best exemplified by the way in which the names of gōtras and pravaras are given in lines 17-18.
The inscription records the grant of the village Vri(Bri) hat-Sārai in Urtti-vishaya in Khijjinga by king Narendrabhanja, son of king Vibhramatunga, and grandson of Kōṭṭabhanja. At the end of the record proper, there is a sort of postscript written in smaller characters, referring to a Grant in the same district by Mahārāja Ranabhañjadēva, son of Vibhramatunga, and, therefore, a brother of Narendrabhañja. The date, sarvat 293, at the end of the record, evidently refers to this latter Grant. It appears at first sight that after the inscription recording the grant of Narendrabhañja was engraved on the copper-plate, a small space remained vacant,
1 For the sake of convenience the historical materials in all the three Grants have been discussed together in the Introduction to A.
Cf. e.g., the plate facing p. 425, J. B. O. R. S., Vol II.
