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268
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[ Vol. XXVI
No. 36-RAJGHAT PLATES OF GOVINDACHANDRADEVA: V. S. 1197
BY KRISHNA DEVA, M.A., DELHI
The record edited below consists of two copper-plates which were unearthed 5' below surface from an ancient mound at Rājghāt in the northern outskirts of the city of Benares in the beginning of July 1940 in course of earth-work excavation by the East Indian Railway in connection with the project of the extension and remodelling of the Kashi railway station and the regirdering of the Dufferin Bridge on the Ganges. On receiving information of their discovery, Rao Bahadur K. N. Dikshit, Director General of Archæology in India, promptly acquired them from the railway authorities through Mr. S. J. P. Cambridge, Engineer-in-charge of the project. I am grateful to Rao Bahadur Dikshit for kindly according me permission and every facility to edit the plates which are now deposited in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benares.
The mound from which the plates were recovered is situated immediately to the east of the Kashi goods yard. Though the actual findspot has been levelled down to a depth of about 8' below the top of the mound and abuts on the compound of the office of the said project, marking the middle of its northern boundary line, the continuation of the mound in the north, which is perched by some Muslim graves and a well, still stands intact and attests the original contour and height of the mound. An examination of the cutting of the mound revealed traces of old structural remains at the same level with the findspot of the plates, superimposed by a later concrete floor of perhaps the Muslim period. In view of the continued occupation in antiquity of the Rajghāt site from the Sunga to the Gähadavāla period, which has been proved by the subsequent excavations of the Archeological Department, it is quite likely that the plates were found from the Gähadaväla stratum, if not actually from the house of the grantee of the charter.
The set consists of two copper-plates, each measuring 15' x111". Their edges are fashioned thicker and raised into rims for the protection of the writing which is inscribed on one side only of each plate. They are held together by a circular ring which passes through a ring-hole of " diameter. The ring-hole is pierced through the middle of the bottom of the first plate and the
top of the second. To the ring is affixed a circular seal, measuring 27" in diameter and bearing · within a thin circular border and concentric band of incised indentations, representations of flying
Garuda in the upper field and the farkha in the lower, with the legend Srimad-Govindachandradevah, engraved in Nāgari in the middle. The plates with the ring and seal weigh 551 tolas. The plates were found securely packed in a roughly fashioned sandstone box made of two similar carved trays put one above the other, each of which measures 24" X 18" X3". Originally the trays must have been held together by means of a string for which a number of grooves have been incised all along their outer edges. The inner recess of the stone receptacle was carved nearly to the size of the plates and a special projection with a deeply cut groove was provided in the middle of its width to accommodate the ring and the seal.
The plates are in an excellent state of preservation and the execution of the writing is careful and elegant. Altogether there are 35 lines of writing of which the first plate contains 18 lines and the second 17 lines. The height of the letters is '. The characters of the inscription are Nägari and the language Sanskrit. With the exception of 9 verses in the beginning and 10 imprecatory and benedictory verses in the end, the rest of the record is in prose. Like other Gähadavāla records, the first verse of this is introductory in praise of Lakshmi and Vishņu and the following eight are devoted to the eulogy of a succession of Gahadavāla rulers ending with the donor of the grant.
