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244 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXI Abvina in the Vikrama year 1140 merged with the chaturda si which ended at only 09 of the day after mean sunrise ; and the solar eclipse consequently appeared on that day as registered in ou grant, which would be equivalent to Friday, the 13th October 1083 A.D. 1
The prose portion of the record from line 12 to line 38 is devoted to the description of its object which is to record the donation of the fifth part of the produce of the village of Palli, embracing all its receipts, to Ünalächärya, son of the most respectable acharya Sahiya who was a resident of Nägahrada but whose son had since migrated elsewhere, probably to Palli, then comprised within the domain of Mewar. He belonged to the Mädhyandina school and the Vatsa götra and had five pravaras. The donee was given full right over the fifth part of every item of produce of the donated village to the extent of its boundaries, with the exception of the income of taxes and drainage, in which he received only half (i.e. one-tenth part), the other half going to the donor himself (lines 26-32).
The donor was Paramabhaffäraka Mahārājādhiraja Parame svara Mandalika (line 13) Vijayasimha, the last prince on our genealogioal list. He made the grant with due regards to scriptural injunctions on the 14th day of the dark half of the month of Asvina in Vikrama Samvat 1140 on the occasion of a solar eclipse (lines 19-21) for the enhancement of the spiritual welfare of himself and his parents (lines 25-26). The gift was made at and the grant issued from Nägahrada i.e. Nägdā, his capital city, the ruins of which lie at a distance of about 15 miles to the north of Udaipur just near the present town of Eklingji. The religious rites connected with this donation appear to have been performed somewhere near the temple of the god Ekalinga, as the donor is here stated to have accomplished it after he had worshipped his tutelary deity in continuation of a bath in the Bhöja-tadäga situated near about towards the east of the temple. The present description (lines 21-22) certainly goes to suggest that the north-eastern boundary of the city of Nāgahrada extended upto the eastern limits of the present town of Eklingji, both the temple and the tank near it being hero mentioned to have been an integral part thereof, as indicated by the locative case-ending in the expression Nāgahrada-tājadhanyām (line 21). Later on, the western half of the ospital oity seems to have been completely deserted, wbile part of the eastern half comprising the celebrated temple of Sri-Ekalinga continued flourshing to this day as a holy place of pilgrimage.
Lines 36-37 embody a couple of imprecatory verses, the contents of which apply to anybody attempting to deprive the done of his rights specified in the charter. The scribe who wrote the grant on the copper sheets was Nagapāla, the son of Pandita Uhila, belonging to the Pañchakulika (modern Pañchõli) oaste which forms a sub-division of the Kayastha community. The messenger, through whom the royal order for the execution of the charter had been conveyed to the concerned authority, was Ranadhavala, son of Sagardă, who was a Chāhamāna Rajaputra.
The latter half of the last line, i.e. line 40, is reserved for the sign-manual of prince Vijayasimha, the donor. It is represented by a small spear-head to left, at the extreme end of the line, which is stated to have been marked in his own hand. This tiny spear-head mark, having been developed in course of time, assumed the shape of a complete spear later on, as found on the copperplate grants of the seventeenth and the following centuries, issued by the Mahārāņās of Udaipur. The other change had been in the position of the sign which now appeared on the upper part of the plates above the actual contents, instead of being marked at the end as seen here.
Regarding the location of the places, Nāgahrada and Palli, there is no difficulty. The former has already been stated to be identical with Nägdā near Eklingji, which was the first capital of the dynasty, while the latter is evidently the same as the modern town of Pāli in the Jodhpur unit of Rajasthan.
Pillai, Indian Ephemeris, Vol. III, p. 180.
