Epigraphia Indica Vol 29

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

Page 17

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXIX
preservation of the plate is fairly satisfactory. Six lines of writing at the top on the obverse and five lines at the top on the reverse have a gap in the middle, owing to the space occupied by the lower part of the seal.
In point of palaeography, language and orthography, the inscription under discussion resembles very closely the only other copper-plate charter of king Mahipala I so far known to the students of history. This is the Bangarh plate finally edited by the late Mr. R. D. Banerji in the pages of this journal, Vol. XIV, pp. 326 ff., with plates. The introductory verses at the beginning of the record, the description of the place of issue, the list of officials and others to whom the royal order was addressed, the list of the privileges to be enjoyed by the donee and the imprecatory and benedictory verses about the end are practically the same in both the charters. Indeed most of these are common to all charters of the Pala family. It is only the actual grant that is different in the Bangarh record and the charter under review. The present epigraph, like some other Pāla records, usually indicates superscript r by a horizontal short stroke below the top matra of the consonant towards the left, sometimes making the sign almost undistinguishable.
The date of the record, given in one figure in line 49, is the year 5 (of the reign of Mahipala I), the 26th day of the month of Sravana. Line 46 speaks of the grant being made by the king on the occasion of a ceremonial bath taken by him in the waters of the Ganges on the day of the vishuvatsankranti (i.e., vishuva-samkränti) which indicates the sun's equinoctial passage into Mesha on the 1st day of solar Vaisakha or into Simha on the 1st day of solar Kärttika. In the present case, it is possible to think that the grant had been made on the 1st of Vaisakha, although the charter was issued a few months later on the 26th of Sravana. A ceremonial bath and offering of gifts on the occasion of the vishuva-sankranti are both enjoined by the Hindu scriptures. The action of the Pāla king, who was a Buddhist, as recorded in the document, no doubt points to the fact, often noted, that there was little difference between the life of a lay follower of Buddhism and that of an ordinary Brahmanical Hindu in the age of the Palas at least in Eastern India. As we have elsewhere observed, when the Brahmanical and Buddhist philosophers were busy in refuting one another's views, the life of the lay man appears to have been marked by absolute religious toleration and the Buddhist laity was gradually nearing absorption into Brahmanical society."
The charter begins with the akshara ni (an abbreviation of the word nibaddha meaning 'registered') which is also found at the end of line 1 as in the Bangarh plate of the same king and in many other records. This kind of double endorsement by the king himself and by one of his officials is also known from other records from Bengal such as those of the Senas. The first ni is followed by the usual symbol for siddham and the introductory word svasti. Next come 12 verses in lines 1-23 forming the introduction of the charter. It is well-known that the fashion of quoting
1 Cf. Brahma Purana quoted in the Sabdakalpadruma, s.v. sankranti: Nilyam dvayor-ayanayor nityam vishuvatör dvayob | chandr-ärkayor-grahanayor-vyatipäteshu parvasu || Ahō-rätr-ōshitaḥ snanam bräddham danam tatha japam | yah karoti prasann-ätma tasya syäd-akshayancha tat ||
See I.H.Q., Vol. XXIII, p. 235; Ind. Cult., Vol. IX, p. 124; J.R.A.S.B., L., Vol. XV, p. 104. Most of the grants of the Buddhist Päla kings were made in favour of Brahmanas. The Manahali plate (Gaudalékhamālā, pp. 148 ff.) records a grant of king Madanapala to a Brahmana as dakshina for his recitation of the Mahabharata before the Patamahadevi Chitramatikādēvi. The Bhagalpur plate (ibid., pp. 56 ff.; cf. Ind. Ant., Vol. XV, p. 309) of the Paramasaugata king Narayanapāla speaks of his Saivite leanings and records a grant made by the king "for the suitable performanance of puja, bali, charu and satra, for the navakarman (i.e., repairs or extensions of the temple) and for other requirements of the divine Siva-bhattaraka at Kalasapota, for whom Nārāyaṇapāla himself has built a sahasr-ayatana (possibly a temple with thousand pillars) and whom he has put up there (at Kalasapota); in order to provide couches and seats, medicines for the sick, requisites, etc., to the congregation of Paéupata teachers (at Kalaéapota); and in order to enable the Pasupatas to bestow blameless enjoyments, consisting of a share fixed by them, on other persons as desired by them".
See Ins. Beng., Vol. III, pp. 64, 75, 88, etc.