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No. 20.]
BASIM PLATES OF VAKATAKA VINDHYASAKTI II.
139
seems to have been modelled on the genitive plural forms of pronouns, e.g., jesin, tesin, kesin, etc., just as the pronominal form etāna is made on the analogy of bāmhaņānal which accompanies it in 1. 17. This form in si has survived in old Marathi works like the Lilācharitra and the Jñānēsvari and is plainly the source of the modern Marathi affix sa. Scholars have long been in doubt about the origin of this affix. Some derived it from the Prākrit affix 884, but as Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar has pointed out the form in sa does not occur in old Marāthi works which throughout exhibit only the form in si. Other origins of this affix have been suggested. Bhandarkar traced it to the Sanskrit word samas and Rajavade to āsa* (meaning near'). The numerous forms in si which occur in the sense of the dative in the present inscription leave no doubt that this affix is the real parent of the Marāthi affix sa.
The only orthographical peculiarities that call for notice are the reduplication of a consonant after 7 (as in Dharmma-, l. 1) and anusvāra (in kata[m]uva, 1. 26 and sā[m*]vuchchharam, 1. 28), the use of for y in karejja, 1. 26 and kerejjāma, I. 28, and the use of the class nasal in place of an anusvāra in Sanskrit and Prākrit words, see, e.g., Vindhya saktēr, and Nandikadasa, 1.5, a-chamm-angālika, l. 22 and sa-mancha-mahākarana, 1. 24, etc.
Like other finished Väkātaka grants, the present inscription opens with the word drishtam, seen', the auspicious word siddham being written in the margin of the first plate as in the Hirahadagalli plates of Sivaskandavarman. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Vākātaka king, the Dharmamahārāja Vindhyasakti. The object of it is to register the grant, by Vindhyasakti, of the village Ākāsapadda? which was situated near Tākālakkhõppaka on the road going north from Nandikada. The donees were certain Brāhmaṇas of the Atharvana charana or Atharvavēda. Brāhmaṇas of this Vēda, though now practically non-existent in the Central Provinces and Berär, were apparently not so rare in the age of the Vākātakas; for, the Tirodi plates of the Vākāțaka king Pravarasēna II also register the grant of a village in the Balaghāt District of the Central Provinces to a Brahmana of the Atharvavēda. The names of all the donees mentioned in lines 10-18 end in ajja (or, aja, Sanskrit, ārya) as in the early grants of the Pallavas, Brihatphalayanas and Anandas. The land or the revenue of the village was divided into four parts, of which three were assigned to eight Brāhmaṇas and the remaining one to one Brāhmaṇa. The shares of the former, again, were not equal; four of them received only half a share and the remaining four, two shareglo each.
Forms like etāna are, of course, recognised by Vararuchi, VI, 4. *R. G. Bhandarkar, Wilson Philological Lectures (publ. in 1914), p. 204.
According to Bhandaskar the origin of the Marathi affix sa is the same as that of Hindi sē, Gujarati a or syū and Sindhi se or 87, ibid, p. 251.
Rajvade, Jnanēšvarichi Vyakarana, (Marathi), p. 11.
This word does not occur in the beginning of the unfinished Balaghat plates of Prithivishēna II (above Vol. IX, p. 270) and the unfinished Drug plate, (ibid., Vol. XXII, p. 212.)
. In the Poona plates of Prabhavatigupta (above, Vol. xv, plate facing p. 42). on the other hand, drishtam is written in the margin and siddham in the first line.
* The name of the village is used in the plural just like Valarakesu in inscription No. 13 at Kārlē (above, Vol. VII, p. 57).
* Above, Vol. XXII, p. 172.
• The text has addhaka in l. 10, which probably means a half'. Compare amsik-addha in l. 21 of the Kondamudi plates of Jayavarman (above, Vol. VI, p. 317). Addhika which occurs in I. 39 of the Hirahadagalli plates (above, Vol. I, p. 9 and n. 24) has, however, been translated by Bühler as labourers'.
10 Pala in . 15 corresponds to pali bhiga or pati-bhāga in the Hirahadagalli plates (II. 12, 13, etc.. passim). In the Görantla plates of Attivarman patri is used in the sense of a measure of land. Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, p. 103. Is parti or para identical with ifaka which is mentioned as a measure of land in the Gunaighar copper plate of Vainyagupta ! See Ind. His. Quart., Vol. VI, pp. 45 ff.
