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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXVI.
sculptures in Bengal, by a trefoil arch with flagstaffs on both sides. The seated lion is represented with mouth open and all the four paws in front. Across the lower panel of the seal is the legend Sri-Kantidevaḥ. The letters are engraved in bold relief on a raised space. The seal is supported, at its lower end, by two figures of serpents, with raised hoods, whose interlaced tails and parts of the bodies are soldered both to the raised rim of the seal and the plate. On the body of the plate, at about 4 inches from the bottom and 5 inches from the proper right side, there is an oval hole which has partly cut through its whole depth. As there are writings on both sides of it, and not a single letter is lost, the hole must have existed before the plate was engraved. The plate contains seventeen lines of writing, which cover a space 6 inches high. The remaining part of the front and the whole of the back side are blank.
The plate was discovered, some time about 1920, by Prof. J. N. Sikdar, in an old temple at Chittagong, locally known as Bara-akhara. According to the Mohunt (Chief priest) of the temple, the plate was lying there since its foundation. The plate is now preserved in the Dacca Museum.
The inscription which the plate bears was edited by Prof. D. C. Bhattacharya, M.A., and Prof. J. N. Sikdar, M.A., in the Modern Review for November, 1922, pp. 612-14. As this number of the Journal is not easily available and some important historical points were not dealt with properly there, I re-edit the record from the original plate. For the sake of brevity I shall refer to the joint-editors as DJ.
The record is incomplete. It contains only the formal portion of the grant, and ends abruptly just where we should expect a detailed account of the land granted. It is, therefore, not exactly a land-grant, but one that was intended to be used as such. An apt parallel is furnished by the Kedarpur plate of Srichandra (above, Vol. XVII, pp. 188-92). The present plate supports the view of the editor of the Kedarpur plate, that such unfinished plates were kept ready in office and filled in with the remaining portion at the time of the actual grant.
The characters are neatly engraved and the plate is in such a good state of preservation that not a single letter presents any difficulty in reading.
The alphabet closely resembles that used in the Pala records of the ninth century A. D. It is, however, difficult to accept DJ's contention that the inscription is to be placed earlier than the Ghosrawa inscription1 of Devapala's time. They are of opinion that though "the characters mainly resemble those in the Ghosrawa inscription.......... the letters bh and th are in ancient forms". A comparison of bh in va(ba)bhuvur- in 1. 2 of Ghosrawa inscription with that in "bhashitaBharata in 1. 6 of the present record does not show any material difference. As regards th, the letter read as such by DJ in line 6 is really rth and hence shows a different form. On the other hand DJ have failed to note that the Ghosrawa inscription preserves distinctly older forms of kh, n, and which are not to be found in the present record. It is true that the later forms of these letters are also to be met with in the records of Devapala. But this only proves that the present record is perhaps slightly later, rather than earlier, than the time of Devapāla. On the whole, it would be more reasonable to assign the record on palaeographic grounds to the ninth century A. D., rather than to 750-850 A. D. as suggested by DJ. In view of the advanced forms of some letters it may be even somewhat later.
The language is Sanskrit. With the exception of line 1 containing the name of the locality whence the charter was issued and the preamble of the grant beginning with sa khalu (1. 13), the rest of the record is in verse. The composition shows that the author was proficient in Sanskrit.
Ind. Ant., Vol. XVII, pp. 307-12.
