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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXVIII
name in Orissa. Little is known about its original findspot and the story of its discovery. The record was exhibited, along with the Utkal University's valuable collection of antiquities, on the occasion of the Cuttack Session of the Indian History Congress in December, 1949. Later it was secured for the Orissa State Museum, Bhubaneswar, where it is at present lying.
The inscription is written on a single plate measuring 9.2 inches by 5'1 inchos. A circular lump of brass soldered at the centre of its left side contains the seal of the king who issued the charter in question. There is a projecting knob at the back of the lump resembling the hair collected in a knot behind a woman's head. On the counter-sunk surface of the seal, there are the emblems of the sun and crescent moon at the top, the legend Sri-Kulastambhadēvasya in the middle, and the emblem of a standing boar facing proper right at the bottom. The lower part of the subscript y in the akshara sya of the legend looks like two parallel straight lines demarcating the legend and the figure of the boar below. The plate is engraved on both the sides. There are altogether 31 lines of writing, the obverse and the reverse containing 15 and 16 lines respectively. The plate is not in a satisfactory state of preservation and shows signs of corrosion and of the peeling off of a layer of metal here and there. This has rendered the reading of a few passages difficult and doubtful. The plate is partly broken at the right side top and bottom corners. It weighs 54 tolas.
The characters belong to the East Indian variety of the Northern alphabet and the inscription may be assigned on palaeographic grounds to about the eighth or ninth century A. D. In point of palaeography, the charter under discussion closely resembles other inscriptions of the family to which its issuer belonged. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. It is written partly in prose and partly in verse. In this respect as well as in point of orthography, our record has very close resemblance with the other records of the family. The verses are mostly common, although they have slight variations in some cases.
The charter is dated not according to any era, but in the issuer's fourth regnal year, Bhadrasudi 12. This date itself does not help us in determining the age to which the charter has to be referred. But as we shall presently see, one of the records of the grandfather of the issuer of our grant appears to be dated in the year 103 apparently of the era used by the Bhauma-Kara rulers of Orissa. As this era is now usually identified with the Harsha era of A. D. 606, it may be assumed that the date of the said charter corresponds to A. D. 709. If therefore the grandfather flourished about the first quarter of the eighth century A. D., the reign of the grandson, who issued the grant under discussion, may be roughly assigned to the middle or the third quarter of that century. It has, however, to be admitted that the identification of the era used by the Bhauma-Karas with the Harsha era is not accepted by some scholars who are inclined to assign the Bhauma-Karas to a later date.
The inscription begins with the symbol for siddham and the word svasti. Verse 1 is in adoration to the god Girisa, i.e., Siva, and is found in several other inscriptions of the family in question. Verse 2 introduces king Raņastambha of the Sulki family which is said to have been favoured by the goddess Stambhēśvari. The next verse says how the Sulki king Raņastambha constructed a number of temples apparently for the god Sadāśiva. Verses 4-5 describe king Jayastambha who was the son and successor of Ranastambha. The following two verses (verses 6-7) describe the reigning king Kulastambha who was the son and successor of Jayastambha and issued the charter from the city of Ködäloka. While kings Ranastambha and Jayastambha of the Sulki family of Ködälöka are known from their own records, king Kulastambha, son of Jayastambha, is known for the first time from the present inscription. He is called a Mahārāja and has the feudatory title samadhigat-āsēsha-mahāsabda. He is further said to have been a devout worshipper of the god Mahëśvara.
* Cf. Bhandarkar, List, Nos. 1694-1701.
