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No. 33]
MEHAR PLATE OF DAMODARADEVA
183
On receiving information about it from Mr. Nagendra Kumar Choudhuri, a local Hindu zemindar, Mr. Pulin Behari Chakravarti (one of the authors) lost no time in approaching Mr. Golam Muhammad Mian, the Officer-in-Charge of the Hajiganj Police Station, and it was mainly through his efforts that Mr. Chakravarti was able to procure the plate for the Asutosh Museum of the Calcutta University.
This is a single plate which measures 11" by 10with a thickness of about fth of an inch. The semi-circular seal forms a curvature in the middle of its upper edge. Its maximum length from the top of the curvature is about 13 inches. It contains a Sanskrit inscription of the 13th century A.D., consisting of 43 lines, 24 engraved on the obverse and 19 on the reverse. Its seal precisely like that of the other copper-plate of Damodara found in the District of Chittagong, presents on the obverse side a figure of Vishnu either riding on Garuda, his traditional vehicle, or in the angry attitude of slaying a fallen foe, and on the reverse side, a rayed disc of the sun set upon and inside a crescent. Both the rayed disc of the sun and the horizontally disposed crescent are installed each on a finely disposed pedestal. Vishņu who is supposed to be in his Purushottama or Krishna-Väsudēva form, is two-armed and wears a kirita on his head. His figure is full of vigour and valour, and shows a strong fighting pose. The lower figure is either Garuda with his prominent nose and other characteristics and flying attitude or, as Mr. Debaprasad Ghosh, Curator of the Asutosh Museum, suggests, a fallen foe about to be killed. It is not unlikely that here we have a scene of the wrestling duel of Madhava with Chāņūra, justifying the epithet of ChāņüraMadhava applied in the present inscription to Damodaradēva.
The representation of Vishņu on Garuda or of Madhava overpowering Chāņūra is certainly symbolical of the Vaishnava faith of king Dāmódara who issued the copper-plate. The Vaishnava faith of the royal dynasty to which Damodara belonged is evident from his name as well as those of his three predecessors. One may indeed observe with N. G. Majumdar that this dynasty "professed the Vaishnava faith like the Varmmans and the Senas."
The date of the issue of the charter is the 22nd day of Jyaishtha in the 4th year of Dāmõdara's reign, corresponding to the 1156th year of the Saka era (= 1234 A.D.), while that in the Chittagong plate is the 1165th year of the same era. The present plate is therefore earlier by nine years than the other, and we know that king Damodara reigned at least for 13 years, if not for more.
As regards the palaeography of the present record, we may mention that its letter-forms are in almost all respects the same as those of the Chittagong plate. The characters of the latter are, in the opinion of N. G. Majumdar, "evidently proto-Bengali and akin to those used in the Bodhgayā inscriptions dated in years 51 and 83 of the Lakshmanasēna era and the Gaya inscription of Govindapala of 1175 A.D.” In the present plate, the syllables tu and tta, tha and ndha are represented alike; the only difference between the two letters, ma and sa, is that in the case of the latter, the loop to the left is generally open. The form of én again, is different from the en we come across in other Bengal inscriptions and the Chittagong plate. It resembles the letter tha. The figures representing the numbers and fractions are practically the same as those met with in the Madanapada and the Sahitya-Parishat copper-plates of Visvarūpasēna. The only exception to be noted is one which relates to the notation adopted for representing the number 2. Strangely enough, this particular number has been represented in one and the same record by two totally different symbols: one resembling the consonant t in line 43 after Jyaishtha-dine and the other approaching the modern Bengali form of ta in lines 18, 24 and 32. It may be asked : why
1J.A.S.B., Vol. XLIII (1874), Part I, pp. 318-24, PL. XVIII; Inscriplions of Bengal, Vol. III, pp. 168-63. * Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, P 159. Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, pp. 158-9.
