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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXVI
No. 38.-BAUDH PLATES OF SALONABHANJA
BY KRISHNA CHANDRA PANIGRARI, M.A., SAMBALPUR These copper-plates were sent to Mr.T. N. Ramachandran, M.A., Officiating Superintendent of the Archeological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta, on the 9th July, 1939, by Mr. S. Roy, B.A., Bar-at-law, the Dewan of the Baudh State, Orissa. According to the information furnished by the latter, they were found by one Braja Padhan, a cultivator of Baudhgarh, the capital of the State, while cultivating his paddy field on the 4th July, 1939. I am indebted to Mr. Ramachandran for the kind permission he has given me for editing the plates.
They are three in number, each measuring about 8'51" across the centre, and are held together by a copper ring about 12" in circumference, which passes through the hole made in the top centre of each plate. The ends of the ring are secured by & seal containing the figure of a vase in relief, but no legend. The inscription consists of 42 lines of writing incised on both the sides of the middle sheet and on the inner face of the first and last sheets. The letters are wellformed and deep-cut, and the inscription is in perfect preservation. The plates together with the ring and the seal weigh about 134 tolas.
The language is Sanskrit. The composition of the record is mostly in verse and partly in prose. It contains some grammatical and spelling mistakes which are corrected in their proper places. In respect of orthography the following points may be noted : (1) v is used for b invariably ; (2) a consonant following is in some cases reduplicated and in others left single, e.g., kirttih and Durjaya, 1.5; (3) 8 is often used for $ as in varsē. 1. 2; (4) anusvāra occasionally takes the place of a class nasal and a final m, for example, in mandal-, 1. 6, and varjitaḥ, 1. 16.
The characters used in the record are proto-Oriya and may be classed with those used in the Adipur plate of Durjayabhanja', the Mahadā plates of Yögěsvaradēvavarman, the Patna Museum plates of Sõmēs vara' and the Baudh plates of Kanakabhañja. The last named grant has been assigned to the third quarter of the fifteenth century A.D. by Mr. B. C. Mazumdar. If this dating be accepted, the present plates must be placed in the middle or the third quarter of the sixteenth century A.D., because in the Baudh plates of Kanakabhañja, certain letters, such as p, m, 8, and y still retain their earlier forms and are found along with most other letters, without rounded tops, while in the present grant, they as well as most other letters show distinct rounded tops, which is a peculiarity of the modern Oriya script and which must have taken at least a century to develop. But in the last quarter of the fifteenth century A.D. we find full-fledged Oriya script, with very slight difference from the modern one in one copper-plate grant of Purushottamadēva, King of Orissa. The charter under review, therefore, cannot be assigned to the fifteenth century, much less to the sixteenth century A.D. It must be placed in the fourteenth century A.D. at the latest and consequently other plates containing proto-Oriya characters with less developed rounded tops must be pushed back to the thirteenth century A.D. or even earlier.
The object of the inscription is to record the grant of the village Nayada situated in the Khatya- vishaya of the Gandharavādi- mandala to a Brahmin named Mahādēva, son of Krishna and grandson of Gõule, halonging to the Kāśyapa-gotra and the Yajurvēda by Mahamandalesvara Sri-Salónabhanjadēva, son of Durjayabhañja and grandson of Silabhañja.
1 Above, Vol. XXV, pp. 172 f., and plate. * Ibid., Vol. XII, pp. 218 f., and plato • Ibid., Vol. XIX, pp. 97 ff., and plat
J.B.. R. S., Vol. II, pp. 356-374, and plates. .lvd. Ant., Vol. I, pp. 355 ff., and plate.
