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No. 30.1
NALANDA SEAL OF VISHNUGUPTA.
235
[1] Solaperumānadiga! Pirāntakadēvar tirumagaļär Goviynda-Vallavaraiyar mahamaha)dēviyār Viramădēviyār Takkõlattu TiruvuralMäha(Maha)dēvarkku nundā-vi[la]kku [onrukku*) vaiyttapon muppadin kalañju [l*).............. ņai aţtuvām-āņām [l*] I[v*]v-ennai muttil tanmmä(nmā)danattil nisadi ettarai-kāņam daņdapattu[m*] nisadam uļakku ennai attusvõ)........... naiykku' tanda-vandă[r*]kku nisa*]dam irandu söru kuduppom āņām ū[ro]m [l*) ur kūļi.................'n küdattāņ Ambakuţţi magan Tambattannēn [l*Jivai en[n=e* luttu [!l*]
TRANSLATION. Hail! Prosperity!
In the thirty-first year of king Parakēsarivarman who took Madura, this is the writing (written agreement) of the Or of Urādagam, (a village) in Purisai-nādu, (a sub-division) of Manaiyil-kottam.
The gold which Viramadēviyar, the daughter of the Chola king Pirantakadēva, (and) the queen of Govinda-Vallavaraiyar, endowed for a perpetual lamp to (the god) Tiruvural-Mabädēva of Takkõlam is thirty kalañju. Receiving this gold, (we) the Or shall supply (one) ulakku of oil daily.
If the supply of oil fails, we shall supply the ulakku of oil daily, after paying the Dhanmāsaram a fine of eight and a half kānam (for) every day (of default). We shall give two meals a day to those who come to collect this oil.
1, Tambattan, son of Ambakuţti,........., this is my writing (signature).
No. 30.- NALANDA SEAL OF VISHNUGUPTA.
BY KRISHNA DEVA, M.A., DELHI. This terracotta seal of Vishnugupta was excavated from Monastery Site No. 1 at Nalanda in 1927-28 together with the seals of Narasimhagupta, Kumāragupta II, Budhagupta and Vainyagupta. It is fragmentary and only a quarter of the original seal consisting of the lower portion of the right half remains, the rest being broken and irretrievably lost. The extant fragment is of the shape of a triangle with the sides measuring 3" x 24" x 27' and contains portions of the last four lines of writing. There is no doubt that like the other Gupta seals from Nalanda. this seal was also oval in shape, as is indicated by the curvature of its edge, and contained representation of Garuda, flanked by the sun and the crescent, in the missing upper portion. On the analogy of the above mentioned seals, it may also be presumed that the full legend on this ran into eight lines, the upper four of which, though lost, may be restored from the other known seals with reasonable certainty.
The seal being the direct impression from a negative matrix, the legend stands out in relief. The execution of the writing is fairly neat and elegant. The charaoters of the inscription
1 The missing syllables were probably *-ppon kondu chandr-aditya-varai nisadam ufakku en'. 2 The missing syllables were probably m=anom [lo] Ivo-en'. • The syllables klu appear to be superfluous. • The missing syllables in this portion cannot be correctly restored.
* These seals are edited in Hirananda Sastri's Nalanda and its Epigraphical Material (4. 8. 1., Memoir No. 66), pp. 64 ff., pl. VIII.
