Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

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

Page 85

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXVIII,
TEXT:
1 Maharasys Kani 23 gra 1 ētasya pu[r]vayam [ma]hārasya Masyagutasya dhitā Pusya[da--- 2 bodhisatta[m] 3 [pratishthāpayati) 4 svake viharē (sarva-satvānam).....
TRANSLATION The first fortnight of Summer, the year 23 of Mahārāja Kanishka-on this day, Pushya[dattā), the daughter of Mahārāja Matsyagupta, establishes (this) Bodhisattva in her own monastery.
No. 8–MADRAS MUSEUM PLATES OF THE TIME OF NARENDRADHAVALA
(Plate 1)
DINES CHANDRA SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND THERE are in the office of the Government Epigraphist for India at Ootacamund several sets of impressions of a copper-plate inscription which is now preserved in the Madras Museum. The impressions originally belonged to the office of the Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle. The find-spot of the record is unknown; but there is little doubt that it was secured from some locality in Orissa. According to the Catalogue of Copper-plate Grants in the Government Museum, Madras, 1918, p. 58, the plates were received from the Collector of the Ganjam District. They were examined by the Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy and a short note on the inscription was published in his report for the year 1916-17, No. 11. This note was utilised by the compiler of the Catalogue of Copper-plate Grants in the Government Museum, Madras. It was, however, not noticed at that time that the record reveals the name of a new king of a hitherto unknown royal family of ancient Orissa. Considering the importance of the inscription, I examined the original plates which had been kindly lent to the Government Epigraphist's office by the Superintendent of the Madras Museum. I edit the record for the Epigraphia Indica with the kind permission of Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, Government Epigraphist for India.
The set consists of three oblong plates each measuring 65" in breadth and 4' in height. They contain four sides of writing in all, the first and the third plates having inscription only on one side. There are ten lines of writing on the first plate, nine lines on the obverse and eight on the reverse of the second plate, and only five lines on the third plate. The size of an akshara is about 1' x '. The plates have no rims, but the incision is deep and the writing is in a good state of preservation. A layer of metal has, however, peeled off from some parts of the outer or blank
From inked estampages kindly supplied, in July 1942, by Mr. M. M. Nagar, the then Curator, Curzon Museum of Archaeclogy, Mathura.
What follows Pubya looks like the upper portion of a da. Possibly the name was Pusyadatā (Pushyadatta). The change of sh into é is common in this type of inscriptions. Compare Pusyamitra and Pusyamitriya of certain other inscriptions form Mathura (Lüders' List of Brahmi Inscriptions, Nos. 16, 34).
* This word is faintly visible. The subscript r of pra looks more like medial 1. The medial i of ti is hardly to be seen. The subscript th and medial & of shtha are indistinct. The right hand stroke of pa is mixed up with the left-hand stroke of ya that follows. While ya is fairly clear, the last ti is not at all clear.
. This must have been followed by hita-sukhdydatu or some such expression. Or in his own monastery'. See above, p. 43, f. n. 1.