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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXVIII
to find that the Government Epigraphist for India has supported my reading and interpretation of the Kulkuri inscription against those of the late Dr. Bhattasali. If, however, my views were fully quoted, it would have been clear that the interesting points raised in the editorial notes on the Kulkuri inscription had already been offered by me. "The correct reading of the passage", I observed in this connection, "is, in my opinion, Lakshmi(shmi)dina-kari(ri)ta-Bhaṭṭāraka[*], 'the Sun-god caused to be made by Lakshmidina.' ...... the word dina may be the same as Sanskrit dina or Prakrit dinna-Sanskrit datta. Attention has also been drawn to such North Indian personal names as Rāmdin."*
The first word of line 2 of the Betka (or Paikparā) inscription has been read by Dr. Bhattasali as Balajika which he equates with Barajika supposed to be the original of the name of the modern Barai (betel-leaf grower) caste of Bengal. I read the word as Ralajika which was explained as indicating an inhabitant of a locality called Ralaja. Considering, however, the similar forms of (b) and r in some cases in the epigraph in question the reading Balajika seems equally possible. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether the form Balajika may be expected in an eleventh century record of East Bengal as standing for Barajika and modern Bāraï. The Prakritic feature substituting r by l is never met with in the Sanskrit inscriptions of Bengal. It is also not a regular feature of Bengali phonetics. The word Bäraï, as well as baraj (betel-leaf plantation) with which it is associated, is never used in Bengali with l in the place of r. This is also clear from the attitude of some philologists who derive Bengali baraj from Arabic burz.5 That r of the word baraj as well as its derivations was pronounced in early-medieval Bengal is moreover clearly indicated by the repeated use of the same word as baraja in the Sahitya Parishad plate of Viśvarupasena, as well as the word bārayi (i.e., bāraï) in the village name Barayipada (literally, the habitation of the Bärayis or Bärais) in line 42 of the Madanpãrã copper-plate inscription of the same king." I therefore think that the expression Rälajika or Balajika in Govindachandra's Betkä (Päikpärā) inscription is actually derived from a locality and has nothing to do with the Baraï or Barui caste.
5. Tekkali Plates of Anantavarman, Ganga Year 358
Mr. R. K. Ghoshal has edited the above inscription in this journal, Vol. XXVI, pp. 174 ff. In my opinion there are several errors in Mr. Ghoshal's transcript of the record. An archaic form of Telugu dh has been read as dhdh or dhe in all the cases. This form of dh, however, occurs in inscriptions like C. P. No. 7 of 1918-19 published in J.A.H.R.S., Vol. VIII, pp. 185 ff.; cf. nagaradhi in line 2, dharasya in line 3, rajadhi° in line 7, vuddhva in line 21, vasudha in line 22 and dhara in line 24. This particular form of the letter may be compared with the later form of it found in epigraphs like C. P. No. 8 of the same year (op. cit., pp. 188 ff.; cf. nagaradhi in line 2, dharasya in line 4, dhara in line 11, etc.). What have therefore been read by Mr. Ghoshal in the Tekkali plates as nagaradhdhi (line 2), dhvasta (line 11), dhviguna (line 13) and dhvata (line 15) should actually be read as nagaradhi, dhasta, dhiguna and dhata respectively. Similarly, what
1 Above, Vol. XXVII, p. 25, note 2.
Journal of the Assam Research Society, Vol. X, pp. 63-4. It may also be pointed out that Dr. Bhattasali was at first not inclined to agree with my reading of the date of the Betkä (Päikpära) inscription as the year 23 which, however, he ultimately accepted (without any remarks) in his article published above.
Cf. r in Paradasa (line 2) and the first v in Vasudeva (line 3).
Cf. J. M. Das, Bangala Bhäshär Abhidhana, s. v., quoting Mukundarama's Chandimangala (sixteenth century).
Loc. cit.; but the derivation is no doubt wrong as the word is found in an inscription of a Sena king who flourished about the first quarter of the thirteenth century (see below, note 6).
Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, pp. 143-8 (lines 45, 46, 59, 68 of the text). The word bärajika, probably in the sense of modern Barai occurs in the Sobharampur plate) of Damodaradeva (see below, Vol. XXX, p. 188). 1 Ins Beng., op. cit., p. 138.
