Epigraphia Indica Vol 30

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 49

94
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXX of the Ganga kings from the Ganga year 195 onwards. The earlier grants of these kings are written in the beautiful box-headed characters of the Central Indian alphabet, well-known from the inscriptions of the Vākāțakas, the Kings of Sarabhapura, the Early Sõmavaṁsīs, and others. The alphabet seems to have been changed towards the end of the reign of the Ganga king Dēvēndravarman I. The earlier records of his reign such as the Chicacole plates of the Ganga year 183, the Parlakimedi plates of the Ganga year 184 and the Tekkali plates of the Ganga year 192 are written in the box-headed characters. In the Siddhantam plates of the Ganga year 195, we find the new script for the first time. The box-heads of letters yield place to straight horizontal strokes. There is a greater mixture of northern and southern forms and the letters become more cursive. This later Kalinga alphabet has been used in the present grant." In the present grant as in other inscriptions written in this later Kalinga script, we find the same letters expressed by varying signs. Attention may, for instance, be drawn to the following :Initial u appears with a horizontal stroke at the top in udaka, 1. 18 and without it in utkirnna, 1. 30; superscript vi has different forms used side by side in the words -kalanko and Gang-āmala-, in l. 6; ch has a rectangle on the left in Mahendr-achala-, 1.2, while it closely resembles v in other places as in cha, 1. 19 ; j appears with a curve turned to the left at the top in Bhäradvāja-, 1. 17, and without it in jaya., 1.7; the superscript il resembles » as in minjari., 1.8; † has a notch at the top in -kutumvina-, 1. 14, but not in-bhatta-, 1. 18; ( has generally no loop, but the looped form also occurs sporadically as in -ītmanah, 1. 16 and Aditya-, 1. 18; dh has a notch in the curve on the left in some cases (cf. dhvasta-, 1. 9), but not in others (of. dharð-, 1. 6), the two curves of bh genorally appear separated as in Bhäradvāja-, 1. 17, but they are joined in some places as in puny-abhivridhayè, l. 16; y has a notch at the bottom of the left limb as in Gängeya-, 11. 28-29, but is without it in some other cases as in vijaya-, 11. 1-2; in its subscript form the letter generally appears without the notch as in pratishthitasya, 1, 3, but see its shape in punyābhivridhaye, Il. 16-17; similarly v also has a notch in-bhuvana-, 1.3, but is without it in viditam= and vö, both in l. 14; the superscript & is cursive in tri-, 1. 11; and the final t is shown with a curve at the bottom in yavat, 1. 20. The language is Sanskrit, and the entire record is in prose with the exception of two benedictive and imprecatory verses in II. 26-28. The grant is somewhat carelessly written. The grammatical mistakes are corrected in the subjoined transcript and in the notes appended to it. As regards orthographical peculiarities, we may note that a consonant is sometimes reduplicated after as in Gokarnna, II. 4-5; v is throughout used for b; the guttural nasal takes the place of any. svāra before Yin -nistrinća, 1. 6, vāń sa-, l. 22 and in tritiy-on sa, I. 26; the palatal & is used for the lingual sh in sad-ochhritih and the dental s for the palatal & in sata-, both in I. 29; finally, chha takes the place of the ligature tsa in -samvachhara in 1. 29.
The plates refer themselves to the reign of the Ganga king, Mahārāja Dēvēndravarman, the son of Mahārājādhiraja Rājēndravarman. They were issued from Kalinganagara and record his grant of the village Musunika situated near Sidhatha in the territorial division of Varāhavartani, on the occasion of a solar eclipse. The grant is dated at the end in the year 306 (expressed in words) of the Găng ya kingdom, i.e., of the Ganga era. While stating the boundaries of the donated village the following neighbouring villages are mentioned, viz., Mukurumbaka, Aralaka, Yavayaţika and Yamivätaka. The donee was the Brāhmana
1 Bühler says that the change in the characters occurred about the Gn. year 183 (Indian Palaeography, English tr., p. 69), but in the Parlakimedi and Tekkali plates issued later in the Gn. years 184 and 192 the boxheaded characters have been used.
• The Tolkali plates of Devendravarman III are not written in the Nägarl characters 48 stated by Mr. Narasimham. Their characters are of the same type as those of the present grant.
The village-name occurs 88 Musunika in l. 13, but as Murunika elsewhere.
• The text is uncertain in this part. I suggest the emendation Sidhatha-ambandhini on the analogy of Lohadhangara,sambandhini in II. 14-18 of the Indian Museum plaves, dated Gn. 308.