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No. 48]
PURI PLATES (SET B) OF GANGA NARASIMHA IV
303
be the second of he two sets (A and B) of copper plates of the Eastern Ganga monarch Narasimha IV, published without facsimile by the late M. M. Chakravarti in J. A. S. B., Vol. LXIV, 1895, Part I, pp. 128 ff. It was also found that considerable improvement in Chakravarti's reading and interpretation of the inscription, especially in the grant portion containing an early specimen of the Oriya language, is possible. I am therefore re-editing he grant portion of the inscription incid on plats VI-VII.
Chakravarti found the inscription in the Sankarānanda Matha at Puri, about half a mile to the south of the Jagannatha t mple and close to the old palace of the Puri Räjäs. It was originally incised on soven platos but the fifth one, together with the seal, is missing. That only six loose plates (without the missing fifth plate) came into the possession of the Matha is indicated by a ino-lern inscription in Dēvanāgari on the obverse of the first plate. It runs as follows:
1 idam tām'a-śāśana-sadakam 2 srimata-parmahamsa-parivräjakachärja-Mögavadhana3 pithādhisa-jagadguru-dadi-Balabrahminaṁda-Sara4 svati-svāmina padē atapitam.
The plates measure each 13.3 inches by 11.1 inches. The first and the seventh plates have inscription only on the inner side, while the other plate are inscribed on both the obverse and the reverse. The plates (with the exception of Plate VII which has no writing on the reverse) were consecutively numbered, the particular numerical figure being engraved on the left margin of the reverse of each plate. The figure for 1 is of the Telugu type, while those for 2 and 3 are of the medieval B ngali type, 2 re embling modern Telugu and English 3 and 3 the Dēvaņāgari form of the same numeral. The figure for 6 is interesting to note. The figures for 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9 also occur in the toxt of the inscription (Plate VI B, lines 12, 21; Plate VII, line 3). The numbers of lines on the different plates are as follows: IB-25, IIA-24, IIB-24, IIIA-24, IIIB-25, IVA-24, IVB-25, VIA-24, VIB-28, VIIA-23. The six plates together weigh 851 tolas.
The characters of the inscription are Gaudi influenced by Nāgari, though a few letters (e.g.) have forms approaching those of the letters in modern Oriya. The engraving is carelessly done. A sibilant is often so formed that it is difficult to understand whether the engraver had the palatal or the dental in mind. In our transcript, we have sometimes ignored the forms of s looking like $ and vice versa. This is to avoid a large number of corrections in the transcript. The language of the versified portion of the inscription is Sanskrit ; but the grant portion in prose i predominantly Oriya. The orthography often exhibits influence of local pronunciation. The same proper name has sometim's been spelt differently (cf. Rädasoo-Radhao-osao, Raktapatā-Rakatao Väragõ=Vārögo, Odamvõlő-Odamölo).
The charter was issued by the imperial Eastern Ganga monarch Narasimha IV who is kuown to have ruled in 1378-1402 A.C. It contains no less than three dates, the first in 1395
1 Read idam támra-patra-sha tkam frimat para mahamsa-parivrä jakacharya-Bhögavardhana-pish-adhiša. jagadguru-dadi. Balabrahmanandasarasvatievaminan padëshwarpitam.
* In Oriya & is usually pronounced as 6. Note also the contractions nra for nara, pti for pati, gochre for gocharė.
3 The latest definitely known date of the king is Saka 1324 (=31st Anks or 25th regnal year). See 8. 1. I., VOL. VI, No. 1016. He may not have been living in Saka 1328 when his wife Pärvati-mahidevi made a gift in favour of the god Narasimha of Simhachalam (ibid., No. 731). Subba Rao (J.A.H.R.S., Vol. VIII, pp. 70 ff.) takes 1414 A.C. to be the last year of the king's reign as another of his wives, named Nlladevi, made a gift in favour of the same god in Saka 1335 (S. I. I., Vol. VI, No. 1072). But this is uncertain as the queen sooms to have been a widow at the time of the grant. A recent suggestion that the king died in 1409 A. C. (cf. J. O. R., Vol. XIX, p. 135) is based on a misunderstanding of the evidence of 8. 1. I., Vol. V, No. 1206, which belongs to the reign of Bhinu lll and not of Bhanu IV as is wrongly supposed.
