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No. 29]
JIRJINGI PLATES OF GANGA INDRAVARMAN: YEAR 39.
4 कं अतो अर्थे' यो विभिचरति तस्य शपथेदं
5 स्य इति ["*]
व्र (ब्रह्महत्य (त्या) पातके'
281
TRANSLATION.
(Ll. 1-3) Succes !
Om! Adoration! [Siva], the Baladhikrita of the illustrious Sabara has given the cess at the threshing floor and a granary for the holy Sankaranarayana to , the ascetic residing in the temple (which is the only one) in the entire settle. ment of the Brahmanas venerated by .
(Ll. 4-5) Whoever will deviate from this, for him is this (our) imprecation that he shall incur the sin of killing a Brāhmaṇa
No. 29. JIRJINGI PLATES OF GANGA INDRAVARMAN: THE YEAR 39.
By R. K. GHOSHAL, M.A., CALOUTTA.
The plates which bear the subjoined inscription were turned up along with pieces of old pottery in course of excavation of an old temple in the village of Jirjingi near Tekkali in the Ganjam District of the Madras Presidency. They were secured by Sir A. P. Patro, Kt., who made them over to Mr. R. Subba Rao of the Andhra Historical Research Society of Rajahmundry. Mr. Rao subsequently published them in the Society's Journal. In view of the great importance justly attached to this record for the early history of the Ganga kings of Orissa, and considering its rather inadequate treatment by Mr. Rao, I re-edit the inscription from excellent ink-impressions kindly supplied by Dr. N. P. Chakravarti, the Government Epigraphist for India.
1 Used in the sense of asminn-arthe.
Read vyabhicha rati.
Read sapatho-'yam.
The original perhaps contained patakēna samyuktō bhavishyati.
Read "sy-ěti.
These are three plates of copper, each measuring 81" by 3".
Towards the proper right end of each plate, there is a hole through which passed a ring, 3" in diameter, the ends of which, however, remain un-soldered, owing to the fact that the seal which must have been fixed to this ring is missing. The weight of the plates is 563 tolas, and that of the ring 12 tolas, making a total of 69 tolas. The edges of the plates are slightly raised into rims so as to protect the inscription. The first and the third plates have writing on their inner faces only, while the
• Khala-bhiksha, lit. alms at a threshing floor, was probably a tax in kind which was paid to the state when the corn was threshed. The right to receive the contribution seems to have been transferred to the donee. Whether the cess at one or all the threshing floors in the particular locality was conferred on the donee the record does not make clear. The Karitalãi stone inscription of Lakshmanarāja (II) (above, Vol. II, pp. 174 ff.) refers in line 34 to the donation of four khala-bhikshās.
7 Brahma-stambha occurs in verse 14 of the Jabalpur and Khairha grants of Yasahkarna, (above, Vols. II, p. 4 and XII, p. 212) but there, too, the correct expression evidently is brahma-stamba meaning a settlement of Brähmanas.' The same verse occurs in the Kumbhi plates of Vijayasimha. Dr. Hall's transcript of it gives the reading brahma-stambo. See J. A. 8. B., Vol. XXXI, p, 117.
J. A. H. B.S., Vol. III, pp. 49 ff. Also noticed in the An. Rep. on South Indian Epigraphy for 1935-36 (C. P. No. 9).
