Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

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

Page 50

No. 3] MANOR PLATES OF VINAYADITYA MANGALARASA : SAKA 613
Third Plate ; Second Side 13 Samvva 7' MārggasIrsha-māga' amāvēsyām. likhita[m] sva-muh-.. 14 jñāptēna Rahasyādhikṣitēna Chullēna ||"
No. 3 MANOR PLATES OF VINAYADITYA MANGALARASA : SAKA 613.
(1 Plate)
KRISHNA DEVA, New DELHI This set of copper plates was unearthed on the 2nd May 1943 from an agricultural inām land bearing Survey No. 2, hissă No. 2, belonging to Mohamed Yusuf Haji Amir Saheb, at the village of Manor, taluka Palghar, District Thana, in course of digging for agricultural purposes together with another set of plates of Dantidurga, "dated Saka 671. Soon after its discovery, the set was acquired by the Collector of Thana who sent it to the Superintendent, Archaeological Survey, Western Circle, Poona, for disposal under the Treasure Trove Aot. I am grateful to the late Rao Bahadur K. N. Dikshit and Dr. N. P. Chakravarti for their kind permission to edit the plates here as well as for many valuable suggestions which they kindly gave me in the preparation of this article.
This well-preserved set consists of two copper platos, each measuring 14" long and 9:4 broad. Though each of them is pierced by a pair of ring holes, they slide, through only one set of holes, on a copper ring the ends of which are soldered into a circular seal, measuring 2-10/12 in diameter. The seal is slightly damaged in the upper right corner and shows faint traces of the design of crescent in the upper field and of lotus in the lower, with the legend Sri-Jay[ā*]śraya in the middle in the script of the main inscription. The edges of the plates are fashioned thicker and raised into rims to protect the writing which is engraved on the inner face of each plate. The inscription, neatly engraved and excellently preserved, runs into 34 lines which are evenly distributed on two plates. The average height of single letters is t" and of conjuncts it. The plates together with the ring and the seal weigh 296 tolas.
The characters belong to the southern variety of the 7th century A. D. and closely resemble those of the Nirpan plates? of Tribhuvanāáraya Nāgavardhanaraja and of the Nausari and Surat' plates of Yuvarāja Sryäśraya silāditya, dated in the years K. 421 and 443 respectively. The noteworthy signs are the initial e in ēka (11.18 and 22), final t in vaset (1.29) and two forms each of letters, and n. The simpler form of 1 is geen in lāṁchhana (1.4), likhitam-(1.34), etc., while the curly cursive form occurs in sakala (1.2), Chulukyānāṁ (1.4), eto. N is similarly indioated by two forms, one of the looped variety as in kshobhit-arnava (1.1) and kalyāna (1.3); and the other of the unlooped variety as in sagotrāņāṁ (1.2), maņi-gana (1.6), etc.
As regards orthography the following points are worth noting. Consonants following Are generally doubled as in Vishnor=vvärāham (1.1), varttamāna (1.16), etc. The medial ri is mostly misspelt as ri, as in mātribhih (11.2, 3), prithivi (11.5, 8, 12, 15), vriddhayê (1.24), etc.
1 The figure has been so formed as to look like the letter re.
Read måsi. • The first two aksharas of the following word have cursive form. • Read mukh-ajñaptena. [The form ajiäptēna is also correct. See above, Vol. XXVII, p. 44, n. 6.- Ed.1 • For Rahasyadhikritēna, the Rithapur inscription has rahasi niyuklene. • There is a mark indicating the end at this place, "Int. Ant., Vol. IX, pp. 124 tf. and PI. . Above, Vol. VIII, pp. 232 ff. and PL • Vienna Or. Cong., p. 326 sud PL.