________________
NJ. 41]
PONNUTURU PLATES OF GANGA SAMANTAVARMAN, YEAR 64
The characters are of the early southern type and belong to the Kalinga variety of the Telugu Kannada alphabet. They closely resemble those of the Urlam1 and Narsingapalli plates of Hastivarman, and Achyutapuram plates of Indravarman. The difference between cha and en is very little. The letter rua looks like a, the superscript r being indicated by a serif (11. 3, 27). The medial i is represented by an inner circle within the sign for medial i (11. 7, 17). The signs for the medial vowels ai (11. 11, 17) and au (in 11. 1, 4, and 13) are particularly noteworthy. Numerical symbols for 4, 8, 20, and 60 are used in the date portion (1.29). Final t can be seen in
1.24.
217
The language of the grant is Sanskrit. With the exception of five customary verses in the end, the inscription is in prose. As to orthography, there is little to note. A consonant before or after r is often doubled.
The inscription pertains to Samantavarman (1. 29), or Mahasamanta varman (1. 7), of the Ganga dynasty of Kalinga. It is issued from Saumyavana, the abode of the goddess of Viotory (Jayasri). Its object is to record the grant of the village of Pratishthapura, situated in the district of Dagha-pañchali, on the occasion of the Uttarayana, to four Brahmanas, Yajñasarman, Gaurisarman, Agniśarman and Umasarman by name, of the Vatsa götra, who were students of the Vajasaneyi sakha, for the increase of the merit of the king and of his parents. It is stated that the king made this grant at the request of his (?) uncle, Adityaraja (mām-Adityarāja-).
The date of this grant is given both in words and in figures. In words, it is the sixty-fourth year of the victorious reign, the thirteenth day of the bright fortnight of Pushya. In figures, it is the year 64, Pushya-dina 28.
The writer and engraver of the grant was Vinayachandra, son of Bhanuchandra, the very person who wrote and engraved the grants of the Early Ganga kings of Kalinga till the 91st year of the Ganga era. One Adityavarman acted as dutaka, here called rajajñāprada.
After the Jirjingi plates of Indravarman, the present is the earliest of the Early Ganga grants that have so far come to light. Like the other grants, it also begins with the prasasti or eulogy of the Early Ganga kings of Kalinga. Its prasasti, however, differs from that given both in the Jirjingi plates of Indravarman and in the grants of Hastivarman. This preamble attained a sort of standardisation only from the time of Hastivarman. His successors took the eulogy given in his grants as model in drafting their records. Another fact worth mentioning in this record is the title Trikalingadhipati. It is significant that, with the exception of Indravarman of the Jirjingi plates and Samantavarman of the present record, no other Early Ganga king had that title. The years mentioned in this grant and in the Jirjingi plates refer in all probability to the Ganga era. If this conjecture is correct, then, considering the nearness of time, it may be supposed that Indravarman and Samantavarman stand as father and son, or as brothers, in relation to each other.
This grant makes one point very clear, and that is about the system of reckoning of lunar months then in vogue in Kalinga. The 13th day of the bright half of Pushya in the given year was equal to the 28th day of Pushya. It can, therefore, be safely concluded that the Purnimanta system of reckoning was in vogue in Kalinga during the rule of the Early Gangas. This is confirmed by some other early grants also. The Urlam plates of Hastivarman record a grant made on the eighth tithi of the dark fortnight of the month of Karttika, which is equated with the eighth
1 Above, Vol. XVII, pp. 330 ff. and plate.
2 Ibid., Vol. XXIII, pp. 62 ff. and plate.
Ibid., Vol. III, pp. 127 ff. and plate.
[It may also mean 'the abode of victory and fortune'.-Ed.]
Above, Vol. XXV, pp. 281 ff. and plate.
Jour. Andh. Hist. Res. Soc., Vol. XII, p. 95.
XVI-1-6
