________________
198
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXX
Inscription No. 1 consists of seven lines of writing and occupies a space of about 14 feet in length and 10 inches in breadth. There are only five lines of writing in Inscription No. 2, of which lines 1-4 are about 13 feet long while line 5 is nearly 2 feet in length. This inscription covers a space about seven inches wide. Inscription No. 3, consisting of eight lines of writing, occupies a space about 13 feet in length and 10 inches in breadth. Line 7 of this epigraph is smaller than lines 1-6, while line 8 is even smaller than line 7. Inscription No. 4, which consists of ten lines of writing, covers a space about 18 feet long and 14 feet wide.
The records are written in the Gaudiya characters of about the thirteenth century A.D. Their language is old Oriya with a slight admixture of Sanskrit. They have to be counted amongst the earliest Oriya inscriptions so far discovered. In regard to paleography and orthography, the inscriptions resemble some other Orissan records of about the same period. As usual with the medieval inscriptions of Orissa, some of the numerical figures are of the early Bengali type while others are of the Telugu-Kannada type. But the figure for 3 has been written in two different ways in Inscription No. 1, line 7, and Inscription No. 4, line 3. In the former case, it resembles the Telugu-Kannada form of the figure. The use of the pronominal adjective i, the locative suffixes i and em and the dative suffix kai, side by side with ku, is of grammatical interest. It seems that kai and ku have been used in two distinct senses, the former to indicate 'for' and the latter 'to'. All the four records bear dates in the Saka era and in the years of the well-known Anka system of régnal reckoning prevalent in Orissa. No. 1 is dated in Saka 1147 (1225 A.D.), the others (Nos. 2-4) bearing dates in Saka 1158 (1237 A.D.).
Inscription No. 1 records the grant of three Vatis of land in a locality called Kshagōpada or Chhagōpada by the Srikarana (officer of the record department or member of the writer class) Suru-senapati (literally, the general named Suru') on Thursday, Ashadha-sudi 5, in Saka 1147 and in the Anka year 15 (or the 13th regnal year) of the reign of Anankabhimadeva (i.e. Ganga Anangabhima III). General Suru, donor of the grant, is also known from two Srikurmam records of Saka 1137 (1215 A.D.) and 1163 (1241 A.D.). It is well known that the royal name is found in various forms such as Ananka, Aniyanka, Ananga, etc., although the form found in the present record (No. 1) is also noticed in the other three inscriptions under discussion. Aniyanka seems to be derived from a combination of Telugu ani (cf. Kannada ani, Tamil aniyam) 'battle', and Sanskrit anka, mark', etc., and to be Sanskritized into Ananga through the intermediate form Ananka. One Vați, which is equal to twenty Manas, is now regarded as equivalent to twenty acres of land. The date of the inscription corresponds regularly to Thursday, June 26, 1225 A.D. The grant was made in favour of the god Purushottama (Jagannatha), for making provision for the offering (naivedya) of milk, clarified butter, rice and curds to the deity, with the cognizance (gōchare) of Mahadeva Paṭhin. The exact relation of Mahadeva Päthin with the gift or gift land cannot be determined. We do not know whether he was a royal officer in charge of transactions involving deeds of gift, or a witness of such a transaction, or the original title-holder of the gift land from whom the donor may have purchased it. It is stated that the grant was made with clarified butter, curry (vyañjana), curds and betel-leaf. The real significance of the statement is uncertain although a similar one is found in all the four inscriptions. But it is
1 In some cases, the superscript has been so written in the inscriptions as to look like the anuevara as in certain modern Oriya conjuncts.
SII, Vol. V, Nos. 1287 and 1299.
Mr. P. B. Desai thinks that anka is the abbreviation of ankabara which occurs frequently in the medieval Kannada inscriptions and literature in the sense of a sworn champion, veteran, leader, etc. Its adaptation can be traced in Telugu anbabadu, Aniyanka-Bhima would thus mean veritable Bhima, the indomitable hero in battle'. Apiyanka was the name of the leader of the Tamil army, who seised the throne of Ceylon according to the Mahavamea (Sewell, Hist. Ins. 8. Ind., p. 131).
