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204
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXX
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. The formal part of the grant in lines 26-35 and 44-58 describing the locality and its boundaries, etc., is in prose, The remaining portion giving the genealogy of the donor and the donee is in verse.
The characters of the inscription belong to a variety of the alphabet used in the eastern part of India in the 12th century A.D. The letter r retains mostly its old form though its more developed triangular shape is alsu in evidence here and there (cf. viro in line 25, visāradah in line 36, Harēh in line 41, etc.). Another peculiarity is the use of three varieties of the sign of the initial s. The first of these consists of two dots or ringlets with a complicated hook below. The second one is composed of two similar dots or ringlets with a circumflex above and hook below. The third variety is similar to the second except that, instead of a regular hook, it has got a slanting stroke below. Anusvāra is formed sometimes by a dot or ringlet alone (cf. bhinnam and Bhāratiyan in lines 2 and 17 respectively) but sometimes as in modern Bengali by a dot with a slanting line below it (cf. Bhimam in line 6, param in line 22, etc.). Band vare denoted throughout by the same sign.
As regards orthography, the following points call for remarks.N has been need in the place of anusvära in wistrinsa in line 22 and mimānsă in line 42. Visarga before the dental sibilant changes into that letter in bhūs=sa in lines 10-11. Final m is often wrongly substituted by anusvāra. Consonants following r are sometimes doubled.
The execution of the inscription is unsatisfactory. Letters or syllables are often omitted (cf. kanao for karanao in line 30, rādhikritān for ränak-adhikritān in line 31, pratin for prabhritin in lines 31-32). There are occasional confusions of sibilants, as in singarao for spingārao in line 2, sasāsa for fasāsa in line 4, etc. Prakritism is to be found in vachchharë for Sanskrit vatsarē in line 43.
The present charter was issued by king Dharmapāla (son of Harshapāla and grandson of Gopāla) of Prāgiyotisha in Assam. Two other copper-plate grants of this king are known. They are the Subhankara pāțaka and Pushpabhadrā grants, both edited by Padmanātha Bhattāchārya in the Kämarüpaśāsanāvali, pp. 146 ff. The introductory as well as the genealogical portion of the present inscription is also found (with but few divergences) in the Subhankarapātaka grant. This agreement which is due to these two inscriptions having been composed by one and the same poet, named Prasthānakalasa, has helped us in restoring some of the portions missing in the present record.
The present inscription is the earliest of the three grants of Dharmapāla. It was issued in the first regnal year of the king while his Subhankara pāțaka inscription was issued in the third year of his reign. The Pushpabhadra grant which contains no date was issued in his advanced age as Bhattacharya has convincingly shown. • The inscription begins with svasti and is followed by a laudatory verse in honour of Ardhayuvatiśvara (i.e. Ardhanāriśvara-Siva).' It then gives in the next thirteen verses the genealogy of king Dharmapāla. There was a king Naraka by name, who was born of the Earth and Vishņu in his Boar incarnation. His son was Bhagadatta. Then after an undefined interval flourished in the latter's family a king named Brahmapāla. His son was Ratnapäla and grandson Purandarapāla
1 Mr. Jenkins, Agent of the then Governor General, made mention of a grant of one Dharmapala, dated in the year 36, when he sent a copy of the grant of Vanamāla to the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. See JASB, 1840, p. 768. But nothing about its contents or whereabouts is known to us.
? Kamarūpasasanavali, p. 147.
* The Pushpabhadrã grant of Dharmapala, which was issued in later years of the king, begins with a verse in honour of Vishnu. This shows that the king who was a fo Hower of Saivism as it appears from the present grant, in early years, became devoted to Vishnu in later life. [The adoration to Siva at the beginning of the Khonamukh and Subhankarapataka inscriptions may be due to their author Prasthanakalasa being & Saiva.-D.C.S.)
No inscription of Brahmapāla has been discovered as yet. In the inscription of his son, Ratnapāla, he is simply called Maharajadhiraja, while Ratnapala has full imperial titles. See JASB, Vol. LXVII, 1898, p. 111.
For Ratnapala's reign we have two oopper-plate grants, the Bargaon grant and the Suālkuchl grant. Soo JASB, op. cit., pp. 99 ff., and Kamari pasanävali, pp. 89 ff.
