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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXX No. 37—BHANJA GRANT FROM KHICHING
(1 Plate)
D. C. SIROAR, OOTACAMOND On December 1, 1941, a copper-plate grant was dug up from the compound of the Thakurin temple at Khlohing (ancient Khijjinga) which is an important locality in the old Mayurbhanj Stato in Orissa. Since then the plate was lying at the Museum at Baripada, headquarters of the State. About the end of December 1948, I met Mr. Paramananda Acharya, then State Archaeologist of Mayurbhanj, at Delhi, where we had assembled for the eleventh session of the Indian History Congress, and received from him information about the discovery. Mr. Acharya then kindly agreed to send the plate to me for examination and publication. The plato reached me sometime afterwards at the office of the Government Epigraphist for India, Ootacamund, where it was properly cleaned and several sets of its impressions and photographs were prepared. My sincere thanks are due to Mr. Acharya for his kindness in allowing me to publish the inscription
This is a singlo oopper plate measuring about 81' by 7'. On a projection at its top centre, is affixed a circular soal which is about 2 + in diameter. At the lower end of this seal, which is designed in the form of an expanded lotus, is carved, on a counter-sank surface, the emblem of a lotus on stalk, above which there is a couchant bull facing proper right and flanked by a few indistinct devices. Above the bull is the legend in two lines: (1) Sri-Mahada- () bhaftjaderasya,
of Mahadábhañjad&va.' It will be seen from our discussion on the inscription below that the name of the Bhañja king who issued the charter, as it is found in the body of the epigraph, does not quite tally with the name as given in the legend on the seal. It may also be pointed out that, although the seal resembles that attached to other records of the Adi-Bhanja royal family of Khiyingakötta (Khiching), in the present case the legend is found not below but above the oouchant bull. The design of the seal of the Adi-Bhañja kinge as well as their custom of using single copper plates for their charters was possibly borrowed from the Bhauma-Karas to whom they may have originally owed allegiance. The plate is written on both sides, the obverse bearing seventeen lines of writing and the reverse sixteen lines. The letters are fairly deeply incised; but they have suffered here and there owing to corrosion. The plato weighs 102 tolas.
The characters employed in the inscription belong to the Gaudiya alphabet and may be palaeographically assigned to a date not much earlier than the eleventh century A.D. The style of writing is cursive and even careless. As is expected in & record of the age and region conoerned, 6 has always been indicated by the sign for v. But sometimes u and ch have the same form ; cf. kulat=ēva (line 27), khichiriga, charan (line 14), cha (line 28). In the case of many other letters also, two or more forms have very often been employed. In the passage bhavabhaya-bhidurd (line 2), the letter bh has three different forms. The letter t has been written in both the Dāvanāgari and the Bengali fashion ; of. mripati (line 6) and prathitah, tasy=do (line 10). D is sometimes undistinguishable from 4 and has in some cases a form resembling that of bh. For the various forms of this letter, see daksho (line 5), prativa(ba)ddha (line 16), pradattoo (line 20), dattā (line 21), Ogar-ädaldi)bhio, yada (line 22), d-aphala (line 23), para-datta (line 25),
m=uda (line 32), eto. P and y have several forms and are often undistinguishable from each other ; cf. tapoo (line 4), rūpah, putra (line 8), ntipati (line 9), punya(nya) (line 19), or=yasya yasya (line 22), para-datta (line 25), vil sa padi (line 29), eto. R has various forms; of. bhiduro (line 2), sürah (line 11), räjā (line 12), para-datta (line 25), vi(vi)nasoa(sva)ra (line 28), eto. Often n is written exactly like r; of. nidhana (line 8), nripati, ripu-vana-dalda)odnala (line 6); but, in many cases, it has its usual form ; cf.revvinito (line 7). For various forms of the medial u and signs, see bhu(bhu) (line 1), ku (lines 13 and 27), mu (lines 20 and 31), hu (lines 21 and 27), mu (line 24), rubu) (line 32), eto. For peculiar forms of some other aksharas, of. khya (line 8), ksha,
