________________
No. 16]
SUMANDALA PLATES OF THE TIME OF PRITHIVIVIGRAHABHATTARAKA: GUPTA YEAR 250
79
adding that the donee speaks of himself in the first person in this verse'. Obviously he has the word mahyam in view. This is thus the nucleus of the interpolation theory. In the light of the foregoing discussion one would, however, ask oneself whether the mahyam is really the pronoun, first person, singular, dative, or whether it is something else. Can it not be the accusative singular of the word mahya used as an adjective qualifying the word grama? That in any case assorts well with the context, mahya being an equivalent of namasya. This last is a well-known term, literally meaning 'to be respected', but technically denoting rent-free'. Synonymous terms like manya are also found used. In the present instance, though manya, pujya, etc., would have fitted in equally well with the metre, the author seems to have hit upon a rather unfamiliar word, not realizing that it might give rise to a grave misapprehension. Or, who knows, his choice has been deliberate.
The word mahyam in the present context having thus lent itself to a different and more befitting interpretation, there can hardly be any doubt that the verse in question did form part of the original record and is not an interpolation.
I must add that I had occasion to peruse Dr. Altekar's paper on the six Saindhava grants while it was still under publication. In fact, I then made a few suggestions in connection with that paper, which Dr. Altekar accepted. At that time, however, nothing occurred to me as to the delusive mahyam. By the association of ideas, I suddenly remembered of this, later on, while dealing with the Bamhani plates of the Pandava king Bharatabala. In this record, I came across the expression mahaiya-padaiḥ, obviously a mistake for mahya-pādaiḥ.
Dr. N. P. Chakravarti, who happened to go through this note of mine and agreed with the interpretation offered here, kindly suggested that the term mahya in the present context may, instead of denoting 'rent-free', simply mean 'big' or 'great'. The word is admittedly of rare occurrence, but its meaning is obvious.
No. 16-SUMANDALA PLATES OF THE TIME OF PRITHIVIVIGRAHABHATTARAKA: GUPTA YEAR 250
(1 Plate)
D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
Sometime ago a young man named Vasudeva Nanda found a set of inscribed copper plates from a mound near the village of Sumandala in the Khalliköt State now merged in the Ganjam District, Orissa. The village of Sumandala is not far from Jaugada, noted for a set of old rock inscriptions of the Maurya emperor Aéōka, and from Buguda, the find-spot of an important copperplate inscription of the Sailödbhava dynasty which had its headquarters at the city of Köngöda on the river Salima (modern Saliya) running into the Chilka Lake. Mr. Nanda handed over the plates to Pandit Ananta Tripathi of Berhampore, who is a reputed Sanskrit scholar and is the editor of the Sanskrit journal Manorama. The editing of the plates was entrusted to Mr. S. N. Rajaguru whose paper on the inscription was published in the said Manorama, Vol. I, part i (1949, Ashadha, Saka 1871), pp. 17-24, together with illustrations of the inscribed sides of the plates.
1 Above, Vol. XVIII, p. 233.
Ibid., Vol. XXVII, p. 142 and note 9. It may be observed that the form mahaiya can equally be amended into mahayya. This last is met with in the Chhandogya Upanishad, VIII, 8, 4: atm-aiv- éha mahayyaḥ, etc. It is, for instance, found used in the sense of great' in the Yogakundali Upanishad, II, 13: labdhva sastram dam mahyam.
