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No. 35-KURUD PLATES OF NARENDRA, YEAR 24
(1 Plate)
MORESHWAR G. DIKSHIT, RAIPUR
The accompanying copper-plate grant, published here for the first time, was found by a farmer while ploughing his field at Kurud, about 27 miles north-east of Raipur, in the Tahsil and District of Raipur in Madhya Pradesh. It was brought to the notice of Mahant Lakshmi Narayan Das, President of the Mahakoshala Congress Committee, Raipur, who subsequently passed it on to Shri M. P. Dwivedi, Deputy Commissioner, Raipur, for acquisition under the Treasure Trove Act. It was through the kindness of the latter that I secured the grant for decipherment and I am obliged to him for kindly according me permission to edit it in this journal. The plates have since been purchased by the Department of Archaeology, Madhya Pradesh, and are at present preserved in the Mahant Ghasidas Memorial Museum at Raipur.
The charter consists of a set of three copper plates, each measuring 5′9′′ broad and 3.2′′ high, secured by means of a circular ring passing through holes in the left margin of the plates. The ends of this ring are soldered into the socket of a seal, about 2.8" in diameter, which has on its countersunk surface the figure of Gaja-Lakshmi, standing on a lotus, with two elephants pouring water over her from pitchers held in their upraised trunks. In the topmost portion of the seal appear the figures of the sun and the moon, represented respectively by a small pellet and a crescent. double line in the centre divides the seal into two compartments, the lower of them containing the legend in two lines, in raised characters in low relief. The seal was apparently cast from a mould. The weight of the plates, together with the seal and the ring, is 66 tolas.
A
The inscription consists of 21 lines of writing, of which five each appear on the second side of the first plate and both sides of the second while the remaining six lines are engraved on the first side of the third plate. The first side of the first plate and the second side of the third are blank.
The characters are of the box-headed variety of the Central Indian Alphabet, assignable to the fifth century A.D. and commonly noticed in the copper-plate grants of the Sarabhapura kings, and resemble closely those of the Pipardula plates1 in having less angular forms. The language is Sanskrit and, with the exception of the legend occurring on the seal and the imprecatory verses. at the end of the charter, the whole inscription is in prose. As regards orthography, it may be noted that ri takes the place of subscript ri in some cases (cf. lines 7-8). The consonants are sometimes doubled in conjunction with r.
The charter was issued by king Narendra from his camp of victory at Tilakšavara on the 4th day of Vaisakha in the 24th year of his reign. The legend on the seal indicates that this Narendra was the son of Sarabha who had 'conquered the earth with the sharp edge of his sword'. The charter was issued in confirmation of an earlier grant made by the deceased father of the king. It is addressed to the residents of the village of Kesavaka, situated in the Chullāḍasima bhöga (or in the bhöga bordering on Chullada) and states that the village was granted by the deceased king to one Bhaárutasvamin or Bhaérutasvämin' belonging to the Dharani götra, after taking a bath in the Ganga, for his own religious merit and was registered by a charter written
IHQ, Vol. XIX, pp. 139-46 and Plates.
[The suggestion is unsupported by the language of the record. See below, p. 267.-Ed.)
* This name is spelt as Bharuta in line 5 and Bhaéruta in line 9.
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