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No. 33]
KENDUPATNA PLATES OF NARASIMHA II : SETS II AND III.
187
inscribed sides of the plates have each 20 lines of writing. The weight of the plates is 955 tolas, while the seal and the ring weigh 253 tolas.
The inscription very closely resembles the other records of Narasimha II in respect of palaeo. graphy, language and orthography and nothing calls for special mention, especially because they have been discussed in details in connection with the Asankhali and Alalpur plates of the same king to be published in this journal.
The date of the grant is given in words in line 177 as the expired Saka year 1217 corresponding to the 22nd Anka year (i.e., 18th actual regnal year omitting, according to rule, the first, sixth, sixteenth and twentieth years of the Anka reckoning) of Narasimha II. The precise date of the document as given in line 178 is Saturday the 14th tithi of the dark half of the month of Mēsha (solar Vaišākha) corresponding, if the Saka year is regarded as current, to Saturday, the 10th April, A.D. 1294. This date, however, seems to be actually earlier than the 18th regnal year of Narasimha II. It is said that the king made a number of grants in his 19th Anka (i.e., 16th regnal year), one of which was being recorded on the plates under discussion. The above date of the document is, however, based on the supposition that the word abhilikhyamāna, found in other similar records (cf. the first set of the Kēndupātnā plates, line 176) of the king in association with the Saka year, has been omitted in the present inscription as in the third set of the plates to be discussed below. But the language of the record as it stands may indicate that the grant had been made when the king was in the pūniya-chchhāya-mandapa (possibly a shaded hall cooled by water) at the kataka (residence, city or secondary capital) called Rāmuṇā (the same as Romunā of several other records of the king) on Saturday, the 14th tithi of the dark half of the month of Mēsha in the king's 19th Anka or 16th regnal year, although the charter was issued a few years later in the king's 22nd Anka corresponding to the expired Saka year 1217. If such was the case, the date of the grant may correspond to Saturday, the 14th April, A.D. 1291, although this date also actually appears to be earlier than the 16th regnal year of the king. It may be pointod out that the date of the first set of the Kēndupātnā plates is Monday, the 6th of the month of Sinha (i.e., solar Bhadrapada) in Saka 1217 and in the 21st Anka (17th regnal year) of Narasimha II. This date is irregular for Saka 1217 and, for Saka 1218, corresponds to Monday the 6th August, A.D. 1296. None of these dates tallies with the generally accepted date of the king's accession in A.D. 1278.
King Vira-sri-Narasimhadēva (i.e., Narasimha II), who was endowed with such birudas as chaturdasa-bhuvan-ādhipati, is said to have made the grant of 100 väfikās of land in favour of Bhimadēvašarman who is also the donee of the other two sets of the Këndupātni plates. Bhimadévasarman, who was a Brāhmaṇa of the Kasyapa götra having the Kasyapa, Āvatsāra and Naldhruva.pravaras, is described as the king's Kumāra-mahāpātra in the first set of the plates, while, in the present record as well as in the third set, he is called Brihat-kumāra-mahāpātra. Mahāpätra was no doubt a minister and Kumara-mahāpātra, like Kumar-ämätya of the older records, a minister of the rank of a Kumāra, i.e., a prince of the royal blood. The word bsihat suggests that BhimadēvaBarman was a Kumāra-mahāpātra of the foremost rank. The mudala, which in Telugu means 'an order and in this context signifies the king's order regarding the execution of the grant, passed through the Puro-parikshaka Pätra Trilochana Jēnā. The word jënā originally meant ' a prince' and later came to be the cognomen of many noble families of the Orissa region. Parikshaka, the same as Oriya pariksha or parichhā, was used to indicate a governor, a superintendent, an inspector, etc. Thus the word purð prefixed to parikshaka may be Sanskrit pura and indicate a Parikshaka attached to the capital or secondary capital of the Ganga monarch, which may, in the present case, have been the kațaka of Rēmuna.
1 In the records of Narasimha IV and in the Mädala Panji, the word en udala seems to mean an arrangro ment made or to be made according to an order'.
If puro stands for Saonkrit puras, it may indicate a higher officer in the class in question. The word is found as pörð in the grants of Narasimha IV and as pura in the Madala Panji.
