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No. 36 ]
RAJGHAT PLATES OF GOVINDACHANDRADEVA: V. S. 1197
269
In respect of orthography the following points are worth noting : (1) B is invariably denoted by the sign for v, e.g., vāhu-valli-vaddh- (1.9), =āmvu (1.10), vabhramur= (1.11), Kanyakuvj(11. 12-13), vodhayaty- (1. 18), etc. (2) Sk has been wrongly substituted for kh in sesharaṁ (1. 22) and kh for sh in garttökharah (1. 19). (3) S has been incorrectly used for fin yasah (1.3), Käsi (1.5), satasas= (1.6), -ādisati (1. 18), visuddhah (1. 20), sāsanam (1. 35), etc. and & for sin samdr(1. 10), tēnā pati (11. 16-17), sahasrāni (1.28), vasundharāṁ (1. 29), etc. (4) Combinations of consonants and nasals have been indiscriminately represented by either anusvāra or a nasal of the same class, e.g., akunth-olkantha and ärambhë (1.1), sankitā (1. 6), mandale (1.8), mantri- (1. 16), etc., as against Mahichamdras= (ll. 2-3), narēndraḥ (1. 10), Govimdachandra (1. 15), samplavam (1. 32), vindu (1. 33), etc. (5) A consonant following has very often been doubled, e.g., dör-vikramēn-ārijitam (1.5), -Opārijtta- (1. 12), sa-parnn- (1. 19), tarppayitva (11. 21-22), gökarnna (1. 23), purvvakaṁ (1. 24), karmmānau and svargga- (1. 27), dharmmah (1. 33), etc., the few exceptions being havirbhujaṁ (1. 23), sētur=nripānā (1. 34), etc. (6) Anusvāra has been rightly changed into final m at the end of the metrical stanza in =ārijitam (1. 5), phalam (1. 31) and samplavam (1. 32), but not at the end of the second quarter as in vasundharāṁ (1. 29), arigula” (1. 31), etc. (7) Kāka pada sign has been used at the end of lines 9, 12 and 24 to show in each case that the last word could not be completed in that line and is continued in the next line. (8) Ornamental scroll patterns have been introduced between the dandas in lines 15, 26 and 35. Similar ornamental designs also occur in other Gähadavāla records like the Sabēth-Mahëth plate of Govindachandradēva (V. S. 1186).
The donor of the grant is the Paramabhattāraka Mahārājādhirāja Paramēsvara Paramamähës. vara Govindachandradēva, the Gahadavāla ruler of Kanauj and Benares, of whom as many as forty-three records dating from V. S. 1171 to V. S. 1211 (A.D. 1114-1154) are already known. The present record repeats the draft of the other copper-plate grants of the ruler, the only new information which it yields being contained in the grant portion. The usual genealogy is given in verses 2-9 and again in lines 11-15.
The date of the grant is recorded both in words and in decimal figures in lines 20-21 as Sunday, the Kärttiki or the 15th day of the bright half of Kärttika in the (Vikrama) Samvat 1197, which regularly corresponds to Sunday, the 27th October, A.D. 1140. This date is not of much interest us we already have a grant of the ruler dated in V. S. 1197.*
The object of the grant is to record the gift of the village Bhadapa-Namdapa together with its pātakas, in the Amaväli-pattalā to the Brahmin Bhatta-Antapāņiśarmman, of the Bhāradvāja-götra and the three pravaras, Bhāradvāja, Angirasa and Vatsa, son of Bhämmu and grandson of Jatanāyiva. The gift was made by Govindachandradēva after bathing in the Ganges at Väräņasi in the Adikāśava-ghatta. The Chandravati plate of Chandradēva of V. S. 1156, which also refers to the god Adikēšava, is the earliest record to mention the AdikēsaVa-ghatta which is described as janita-Surasarid-Varan-aghamarshana," implying that it was situated on the sacred confluence of the Ganges and the Barnā. The present situation of the Adikēšava ghāt exactly conforms to this description and it is interesting to note the close promixity of the ghāt to the findspot of the present copper-plates. Two other Gahadavāla
1 Above, Vol, XI, pp. 22 ff.
See R. S. Tripathi, History of Kanauj, pp. 369 ff. * Above, VOL. IV, p. 111. • Above, Vol. XIV, p. 198, 1.16.
