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EPIGRAPHIA ÍNDICA
[VOL. XXX As indicated above, the writing on the reverse of the plaque should also have to be assigned to the same age. The language of both the records is Sanskrit. The date, quoted in line 1 of the inscription on the obverse, reads: Sã 67 Dhausha-disnje.. no doubt standing for Samvat 67 Pausha-dine... The record was therefore incised on a day of the solar month of Paugha i.e., Dhanus) in the 67th year of some era. Considering the provenance of the plaque and the date of the epigraph suggested by its palaeography it is possible to think that the era to which the year has to be referred is none other than the Lakshmanasēna-samvat or La-Sam prevalent in Mithila (North Bihär). There is difference of opinion in regard to the epoch of this era ; but it has been said that "the initial year of the era, as reckoned at different times and places, varied between 1108 and 1120 A.D." The date of the record under study, viz., year 67, thus appears to fall in the period 1175-87 A.D.
Both the lines of writing, impressed on the reverse of the plaque by means of a sealing, read Sri-Suhmakasya, the passage being followed by a double danda and & symbol. The sealing, used in imprinting the lines, therefore belonged to a person named Suhmaka. It is clear that the same sealing was employed twice. The reason for this may be that the letters of the lower line, originally impressed, did not all of them come out quite clearly. In the first line, which shows some letters more clearly, the fourth akshara, viz., ka, looks almost like ka. But this may be due to a defect in the sealing.
The inscription on the obverse of the plaque consists of four or probably five lines of writing, of which the first, giving the date of the record, has been quoted and discussed above. The object of the inscription appears to be that three persons named Sadhi, Echi and Aka made & gift of a lotus at the feet of Kebavå at Nagaldāmaka. The third akshara of the name read as Kè savā is damaged; but the reading seems to be fairly certain. Kēsavā appears to have been the name of a god or goddess worshipped at a place called Nagaldāmaka. Whether the name is & mistake for Kesava, meaning Vishnu, cannot be determined. Traces of an akshara below the concluding letters of line 4 suggest the existence of a fifth line in the original record probably containing the word iti indicating the end of the document. It seems that Suhmaka was the chief priest of the temple of the deity in question or & royal official whose seal was believed to impart the required authenticity to the deed of gift.
The fact that the offering of a lotus in favour of a deity was regarded as important enough to be recorded in an inscription, albeit on a terracotta plaque, appears to suggest that the flower was not an ordinary one. It was probably a lotus made of gold or silver. The inscription points to the custom of using clay plaques or tablets as writing material side by side with other objects such as copper plates. Terracotta plaques, which were not as durable as copper plates but were much cheaper and more easily procurable, were probably used to record minor donations of poores people.
I have no idea about the location of the place called Nagaldāmaka; but it might have been situated somewhere in the Teghra Police Station in the northern part of the Monghyr District.
TEXT
Reverse 1 sri-Suhmakasya || 2 sri-Suhmakasya ||
1 History of Bengal, Vol. I (Dacca University), pp. 233-38 ; of. JBRS, Vol. XXXVII, Parts 3-4, pp. 10-13.
* Flowers made of gold have been discovered at such ancient sites as Salihundam (Srikakulam Dist., Andhra) in the course of excavations (af. Indian Archaeology 1953-54, p. 11). For silver flowers, of. SII. Vol. IV, No. 1019.
From the original. * There is a symbol after the double danda.
