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No. 41-BHARAT KALA BHAVAN PLATE OF HARIRAJA, V. S. 1040
(1 Plate)
D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
About the middle of 1955, I received from Rai Krishnadasji, Founder and Honorary Curator of the Bharat Kala Bhavan now attached to the Hindu University, Banaras, a pencil-rubbing of this inscription for examination. As the inscription was found to be interesting, I requested Rai Krishnadasji to secure the plate for the Kala Bhavan and let me have an opportunity to examine and publish the inscription. Accordingly I received the plate for examination about the end of 1956. My sincere thanks are due to Rai Krishnadasji for the kindness shown to me. The find-spot of the plate and the story of its discovery are unknown. But it is stated that the plates were purchased from a resident of Tikamgarh in the former Orchha State, now in Madhya Pradesh.
This is a single copper plate measuring 13.8" in length and 6.6" in height. The plate is thin (about '05" in thickness) without either any seal affixed to it or any emblem incised on it. There is, however, a small hole (about 15" in diameter) at the centre of the top margin, apparently meant for hanging the plate from some suspender. There are altogether thirteen lines of writing on the obverse of the plate, the reverse being blank. The inscription is in a good state of preservation. The weight of the plate is 59 tolas.
n
The characters are early Nagari of the tenth century A. D. and olosely resemble some of the contemporary inscriptions of the region such as those of the early Chandellas. As regards the palaeography of the record, it may be pointed out that some of the letters and signs of the original draft were misunderstood by the engraver. The letter has been endowed with a top mätrā. In a few cases, the letters m and s have the same form (cf. samast-a° in line 4 and rähugrasē...mättä in line 6) although the usual forms of these aksharas have been employed elsewhere. The letter has two different forms, one of them being undistinguishable from ch (cf. nikara-ruchira-chamara in line 3 and samara......tara-taranir iva in line 4). The ch-like form of r has, however, been used only in a few cases. The akshara v looks like ch in some cases (cf. iva in line 5). The form of ksh in dakshina in line 9 is interesting. The danda has often been put so close to the aksharas that it looks like the a-mätra of the preceding or the e-matra of the following consonant. It may be observed that medial è of both the siro-mäträ and prishtha-mäträ types has been used in the insaription.
The language of the record is Sanskrit and it is written in an admixture of prose and verse. Interesting from the orthographical point of view is the representation of the class nasal by the anusvära generally. Final m has often been changed to anusvära wrongly. The influence of local pronunciation is noticed in the use of s for in many cases and of j for y in jo in line 12. There is one case, where & has been used for s (cf. srotaḥ in line 10). The inscription is dated in V.S. 1040. There are no details regarding the day when the grant was issued excepting the fact that it was made on the occasion of a solar eclipse. There was a solar eclipse in V.S. 1040 if the year is regarded as expired and Karttikadi. This eclipse occurred on the 30th July 984 A.D.
It may be noticed that some contemporary records like the Nanyaura plate (Ind. Ant., Vol. XVI, pp 201-04 and Plate) of Chandella Dhanga, dated V.S. 1055 (998 A.D.) were similarly issued without any seal or representation of any royal emblem. The copper-plate grants of the Later Chandellas generally bear the representation of Lakshmi or Gajalakshmi which was the emblem of the family but no seal of the usual type.
Cf. the Nanyaura plate referred to above.
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