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LODHIA PLATES OF MAHA-SIVAGUPTA; YEAR 57
No. 50-LODHIA PLATES OF MAHA-SIVAGUPTA; YEAR 57
(1 Plate)
L. P. PANDEYA, RAIGARH
Lodhia is a small village in the Saria Pargana of the Sarangarh State, now a sub-division in the newly formed Raigarh District of the Central Provinces, 15 miles east of the town of Sarangarh.. The village of Thakurdia in the same sub-division, where a copper charter of king MahaPravararaja of the Sarabhapura1 family was unearthed in 1932, is about 15 miles to the west from Lodhia on the other side of the hills, dividing the Saria Pargana from the Sarangarh Pargana. About six miles to the north-east lies the big village of Saria with its adjoining little village named Pujārīpālī, where there stand a number of ruined brick-temples and sculptured stone door-jambs, the former resembling, in style and architecture, the famous Lakshman temple at Sirpur (old Sripura) on the Mahanadi in the Raipur District of the Central Provinces, which was erected by queen Vasață, the mother of king Maha-Sivagupta Bālārjuna, the donor of the present charter. These ruined temples and carved pillars do suggest the existence of some famous town, now lost for ever, about 600 A.D. in the vicinity of Lodhia. Within this village itself some Sivalingas of polished stone, sculptured stone pillars, beautifully carved images and statues have been found and are preserved by the headman there. Two of the images represent Vishnu reclining on the serpent, and Nrisimha tearing the demon Hiranyakasipu. There is a heap of ruins about a furlong from Lodhia, which discloses the fact that in olden days some fine structure stood there. Old tanks, wells and remains of what is called 'fort' with a moat within the village boundary all bear witness to its antiquity. The village of Bar or Bayar, where a number of punch-marked silver coins were found about the year 1921, and which are deposited in the treasury at Sarangarh, is
within three miles from Lodhia.
No. 60]
319
The present plates were discovered at a depth of about two feet from the surface of the earth on July 11th, 1942, by one Dolo Ganda in the back-yard of his house in the course of digging earth while repairing the parapet wall of the yard (kolā, to use the local term). They were produced before the headman of the village, Babu Vijaya Shankar, who is a member of the Maha-Kōsala Historical Society of Balpur, District Bilaspur, Central Provinces, and is interested in historical finds. The plates were then forwarded to the Police Station at Baremkela to which the village of Lodhia is attached and were duly despatched to the office of the then Ruling Chief of Sarangarh
State.
As soon as I came to know of this find, I addressed the enlightened Raja Bahadur Jawaher Singh Sahib, C.I.E., through whose kindness the set of plates complete with the seal, reached my hands on July 23rd, 1942.
I edit the charter from the original with the permission of the late Raja Bahadur in whose possession the plates then were and to whom our Society is grateful for kindly sending them to us for decipherment.
The charter consists of three copper plates, of which the first and the third are inscribed on one side and the second on both the sides. The writing on them is in a fair state of preservation.
1 Above, Vol. XXII, pp. 15 ff.
2 Above, Vol. XI, p. 185.
They are now deposited in the National Museum of India, New Delhi.
The contents of the record have since been noticed in the following publications: Quarterly Journal of Mythic Society, Bangalore, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (July 1945), pp 1-4; Proceedings and Transactions of the AllIndia Oriental Conference, Twelfth Session, Vol. III, pp. 595-6 (1948); Journal of Kalirga Historical Research Society, Vol. II (September and December 1947), Nos. 2-3, pp. 121-24.
