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No. 20.]
SANTA-BOMMALI PLATES OF INDRAVARMAN: [GANGA] YEAR 87.
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plates of Indravarman. They have also a general resemblance to the script of the stray Tirlingi plate (Year 28 ?) as well as to that of the Narasingapalli (Year 79) and Urlam' (Year 80) plates of Hastivarman.
The numerical symbols 80, 7 and 30 occur in line 23.
As in the Parla-Kimēḍi plates, the heads of the letters have in many places an imperfect and disjointed appearance, as if they had been partially worn away by rust. But as observed by Dr. Fleet, this is due, wherever it occurs, to faulty execution on the part of the engraver, in omitting sometimes to complete the matras and sometimes even to commence them at all. Otherwise, the engraving is fairly clearly done. There are six lines inscribed on each plate, the whole inscription containing twenty-four lines in all.
The language is Sanskrit. With the exception of three customary verses (11. 19-23) and one concluding verse (1. 24), the inscription is written in prose throughout.
In respect of orthography, we have to notice (1) the use of the guttural nasal () before h in sinha, line 24, (2) the substitution of anusvära by the class nasal of the following consonant in ayan-dāna, 1. 18, (3) the doubling of dh in conjunction with a following y in -anuddhyataḥ, 1. 7, (4) the frequent doubling of consonants after r, (5) the occasional doubling of consonants before and (6) the use of anusvära in place of the final form of m in phalam (1. 20) and -nupalanam (1. 21). The letters b and are indicated by separate signs, the solitary exception being in parivadha (1. 14). The rules of sandhi are observed throughout except in lines 5 and 17.
The object of the inscription is to record the gift of three halas of land towards meeting the expenses of offering regular worship and repairing the temple of god Rämēsvara-bhaṭṭāraka in Dantayavāgū. Of these two halas lay in the village of Haribhata in the district of Krōshṭukavarttani and the third at Dantayavāgū itself. The gift was made into a permanent free-hold devagrahara by Indravarman, alias Rajasimha, who is described as belonging to the spotless family of the Gängas.
The date of the inscription is given, in figures only, as the years of the prosperous victorious reign (pravarddhamana-vijaya-rajya-sanvatsarah) 80 7; (the month) Jyeshtha: the day 30 (1. 23 ) .
The charter was written by Vinayachandra, the son of Bhanuchandra (1. 24).
We have had as yet three published records of the reign of Indravarman, alias Rajasimha : they are (1) the Achyutapuram plates of the Year 87, (2) the Parla-Kimēdi plates of the Year 91. and (3) the record under discussion.
Another single plate from Tirlingi (in the Ganjam District), apparently the last of a set, bears an inscription which is dated, according to Mr. S. N. Rajaguru", in the year 28 of the Ganga era. The writer (and engraver) of this stray plate describes himself
as
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. XVI, pp. 131 ff. For a lithograph of the plates Dr. Fleet refers us to his Indian Inscriptions, No. 18. The plates are preserved in the Madras Museum. This work of Dr. Fleet does not seem to have been eventually published.
2 J. A. H. R. S., Vol. III, pp. 54 ff. Above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 62 ff. Ibid., Vol. XVII, pp. 332 ff. J. A. H. R. S., Vol. III, p. 54.
