Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 43

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXVII No. 2-KESARIBEDA PLATES OF NALA ARTHAPATI-BHATTARAKA.
(1 Plate)
DINES CHANDRA SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND. In February 1944, the Amin of the Umarkot Police Station in the Jeypore State (Koraput District, Orissa) reported to the authorities of the State that a set of copper plates had boon discovered in a forest adjoining the village of Kēsaribēdă within the jurisdiction of the said Police Station. The plates are said to have been found exposed on the ground at the foot of a mango tree in the forest. The news of the discovery soon reached the ears of Mr. G. Ramadas of Jeypore, who is an enthusiastic student of Indian epigraphy, and he secured the plates from the Pājāri of the village with the help of his friend, the late Mr. Talisetty Rama Rao who was then the Assistant Diwan of the Jeypore State. Mr. Ramadas cut the ring passing through the plates in order to read the inscription on them; but soon afterwards he sent the entire set of plates for registration to the Government Epigraphist for India at Ootacamund. I edit the inscription with the permission kindly accorded to me by Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, Government Epigraphist for India.
Mr. Ramadas has earned the gratitude of the students of Indian history by publishing recently an interesting note on the Kesaribēda copper-plate inscription in the Journal of the Bihar Research Society, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 33-42. Unfortunately the text of the record as male out by him as well as his interpretation of it is not free from errors. Besides, most of his suggestions regarding Nala history appear to be mere wild guesses. As I am inclined to disagree with almost all of Mr. Ramadas's theories about the Nalas, I would prefer not to comment on them in detail for the present.
The set consists of three copper plates strung together on a copper ring. The circumference of the ring, which is fixed in a thick and somewhat oval mass of copper having three square holes in a line at the top, is 7'4" and its diameter 2". The plates are roughly 7.5" in length and 1.5" in breadth and have their corners rounded off. The hole for the ring to pass through is at the proper right end of the plates and has a diameter of f". The weight of the ring is 6.75 tolas and that of the plates together with the ring is 34.75 tolas. Of the three plates, the second and the third are inscribed on both sides, while the first has writing on one side only. Altogether there are fourteen lines of writing, gach side having three lines, except the second side of the third plate which has two lines only.
The alphabet used is of the scooped out' type of the box-headed variety of South Indian script. The characters are not of the angular type like those in the Rithapur platest of Bhavadattavarman and Arthapati and suggest a rather earlier date than that record, although both the Kësaribēda and Rithapur charters were drafted by one and the same official (the Rahasyūdhikrita Chulla) and issued by the same king (Arthapati-bhattāraka), and have therefore to be referred to the same epoch sometime in the sixth century A.D. Attention may be drawn to the forms of the initial vowels a, ã and u in lines 5 (a, a, u), 6 (a), 9 (a), 11 (u), 12 (ā) and 13 (a). Final n occurs in line 3 and m in line 13; but t is found in lines 6, 9, 10 and 11. The letter is found in three different forms. In some cases it has the ordinary form with the right hand side straight and the left arm slightly bent downwards. Often, however, both the arms are bent towards the left. In a few cases, the left arm has formed a loop and become undistinguishable from n (cf. Ita in line 3 and nta in line 7). The figure for 7 occurs in the date in line 13.
The language of the record, which is not free from errors, is Sanskrit. It is written in proso, but has two imprecatory verses in the anushtubh metre about the end. Of orthographic poculiarities, mention may be made of the ugual duplication of the consonants when preceded or followed
See discussion on this record below, p. 13.