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No. 26]
TWO GRANTS FROM DASPALLA
Jayananda
Parānanda
Sivānanda
Dēvānanda I
Vilāsatunga
Paramamānēsvara Dēvānanda II ;
year 184
Paramasaugata Dhruvānanda ;
year 193
The Narasingpur plate of Devananda II is a spurious document containing only certain fragments of two genuine charters of the Nanda king. As noticed above, the fragments of verses found in this spurious record suggested the existence of some genuine grants of Dēvānanda having & set of introductory stanzas which were different from those known from the published records of the king. Happily this conjecture has now been justified fully by the discovery of the present inscription. The introductory part of the charter under discussion consists of ten stanzas none of which is found in the common introduction of the Baripada Museum and Jurerpur plates of Devānanda and the Talmul plate of Dhruvānanda, although fragments of most of them can be traced in the spurious Narsingpur plate of the former. Lines 1-3 and 8-19 of the Narsingpur plate contain fragments of the verses forming the introduction of our charter in the following order: 1, 6, 7, 8, 4, 5 and 6. Lines 16, 18 and 19 of the same plate contain respectively the numbers 4,5 and 6 which, as we have already pointed out, were meant to indicate the end of the fourth, fifth and sixth verses of some genuine rocords copied in it. It is now seen that the number 4 is put there actually after the concluding passage of the fourth verse of the present charter, while 5 is placed among certain passages of the fifth verse and 6 between the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth stanza apparently through confusion.
The inscription begins with the symbol for Siddham. Verse 1 describes the city of Jayapura, capital of the Nandas, while each one of the following six verses describes respectively the rulers Jayānanda, his son Parānanda, his son Sivānanda, his son Dāvānanda I, his son Vilāsa. turga, and his son Dāvananda II, although the description of the reigning monarch Dēvānanda II continues in the following three stanzas (verses 8-10). This introductory part of the record contains hardly anything besides conventional and vague praises of the rulers described. Next follows a probe passage (lines 22-26) introducing again king Dēvānanda II as desirous of making
* Above, Vol. XXVII, p. 331.
