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266
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXX
Gauda yoke before the thirteenth year of his reign, which must have fallen in the period 619-32 A.D., or, roughly speaking, about the close of the first quarter of the seventh century.
Verse 12 of our record, mentioning Kōngōda as the place whence the charter was issued, is also found in the Puri (verse 11) and Buguda (verse 12) plates, although the Cuttack (Orissa) Museum plates, issued from a locality called Madhavapura, have it (verse 14) in a modified form.
Lines 32-34 speak of the king's subordinates and officials in Kōngōda-mandala, who were addressed in respect of the grant of the village of Amva(mba)grama, attached to Devagrama-vishaya, in favour of a Brahmana named Bhatta Narayana (lines 34 ff.). In lines 40-44 some of the usual imprecatory and benedictory stanzas are quoted with the introduction uktañ-cha Manavě Dharma-sastre. The last three lines (lines 44-46) contain two stanzas (actually one and a half, as the first half of the second verse is omitted through oversight), which are also found in the Buguda and Puri plates. This is followed by the date with which the charter ends. Aceording to the concluding stanzas, the charter was written by Upendrasimha, son of Bhogin Kunda, endowed with a seal (läñchhita) by Jayasimha, and engraved by Bhogin Chheddi, while its executor (dutaka) was Gangabhadra employed in the post of Pratiharin or officer in charge of the palace gate (cf. prätiharye vyavasthitaḥ). The same Upendrasimha was also the writer of the Cuttack (Orissa) Museum plates which were heated (täpita) by Jayasimha for the affixing of the seal. The Parikud plates of Ayasobhita II Madhyamarāja (circa 665-95 A.D.), dated in the king's 26th regnal year, appear to have been läñchhita by Jayasimha, there called Petäpäla (keeper of the record-boxes), although the learned editor of the epigraph could not read the particular section of the inscription. The Nivina grant" of Dharmaraja (circa 695-730 A.D.), possibly dated in the king's ninth regnal year, was also läñchhita by Jayasimha. As the intervening period between the 13th regnal year of Sainyabhits Madhavavarman II Srinivasa and the 9th year of the reign of his grandson would cover about three quarters of a century, too long for the active period of a man's life, it is possible that Jayasimha of the Parikud plates and Nivina grant was a different person, probably a grandson of his namesake mentioned in the Buguda, Puri and Purushottampur plates.
Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, the location of those found in the introductory part of the charter has already been discussed by us in connection with the Banpur plates. I am not quite sure about the identification of the village called Ambagrama and the vishaya or district named Devagrama stated to have been situated in the mandala of Kōngōda.
TEXT3
[Metres: verses 1, 4 Sārdulavikrīḍita; verses 2, 11 Sragdhara; verses 3, 6, 7, 9, 10 Vasantatilaka; verses 5, 13-17 Anushtubh; verse 8 Indravajra; verse 12 Arya.]
First Plate
1 Siddham Svasti [*] Indër-ddha(r-ddhan)ta-mripäla-tan(tu]bhir-ivi(va) áll(li)shṭāḥ karai[b] köma[air]-va(r-ba)ddh-&
2 berarup(a) aphurat-phani-mani(p?)r-di[gdha]-p[r]abblað-[ñka{aỗ-thâu)bhi][} [*] Pär vvatyā[h] sa-kacha-gra
3 ha-vyatikara-vyavṛitta-va(ba)ndha-sla(sla)tha [Gam]g-ambha(mbhah)-pluti-[bhinna]-bhasmakapika[*] Sambhʊ].
1 Above, Vol. XI, pp. 281-87.
Ibid., Vol. XXI, pp. 38 ff.
From the original plates and impressions.
Expressed by symbol.