Epigraphia Indica Vol 31

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

Page 45

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXI
person in ch irge of the worship of in deity in a templo. But an examination of the impressiotis of the plates published by Vasu clearly shows that the correct reading of the passage is $e(sē)nüpatyAllālantithasarmmand. It has to be noticed that the sun Siapati (general) Allalanätbasarman is also twice mentioned in the Alalpur inscription under review in lines 213 and 228 where Pandit Gargavatu reads the passages, no doubt correctly, its Allīlinātha-senapatay and Allālanāthasēnīpatină. The names of the villages read hy the Pandit As Hariõntigrima (modern Harianta), Chhatalogrāma (modern Chluntol), Kuringa rāma (moler Kurang) and Khandhalagrama (modern Khan.lol) similarly point to the reliable nature of his transcript. Of course it cannot be said that the Pandit's transcript is absolutely free from misrendings.
The plates aro known to Lave been seven in number. Pandit Garyavatu numbers the line in his transcript separately according to the inscribed sides of the plates. This shows, as expected, that the first and seventh plates were inscribed only on the inner sides, while the other plates had writing on both the silet. There were altogether 228 lines of writing. The first and second sides of Plate IV hul respectively 17 and 18 lines engravel on them, while the first si le of plate Vand the inner side of plite VII had respectively 19 and 14 lines. The remaining cight inscribed faces of the copper plates had earli twenty lines of writing on them.
The record contains two dates. The first of them refers to this time when the grant was actually made by king Narasimha IT, while the second falls about two years later when the document was written and the plates were engraved. The first late is given as the expired Saka year 1215 85 well as the king's nineteenth Anka, Kumbha-dvitiya, badi 5, Tuesday. Kumbhasitiya indicates the second day of the solar month of Phölguma. In Naka 1215, however, the econd day of solar l'bilguna fell on Tuesday, the 26th January, 1291 ; but the tithi on that date was Maghu badi 14 and not Phalyua bali 5. In that year, Phalguna badi 5 actually fell on Tuesday, the 16th February, which was the 23rd and not the 2nd clay of the solar month of Phālguna. The date of our record thus seems to be irregular; it is either the 23th of January or the 16th of February in 1294 A.D The nineteenth Aikat year of king Narasitisha II was his sixteenth regral year (omitting, according to rule, the first, sixth and sixteenth years). This agrees with the fact known from otber records that Narasirib: 11 ascended the throne in Saku 1200 (1278 A.D.). The seconl date of our inscription simply speaks of the king's twontysecond Auka, i.e. eighteenth regnal year (omitting the first, sixth, sixteenth and twentieth years), which apparently fell in Saka 1217. The grant was made when the king was staying at Remuņā-kataka, i.e. the city of Romuņā or the royal camp or residence at Reruņi, which was the place wherefrom the Kendapatna plates of Saka 1217 (or 1218) were also issue:l. In the expression Sri-charaņēna vijaya-snimaye used in this connection, ri-churana is an honorific expression to indicate the king and vijaya has been used in its Oriya sense of stay's. In the same context other records of Narasimha II read vijay-ārvasari. The mudala (i.e. the royal order regarding the grant or its execution) passed through the Puro-Parilshuka-Pūtra Trilochana-jenä who seems to have been an official of a minister's rank and was the principul inspector attacheil to some administrativo department. The object of the grant was the increase of the king's longevity, health, wealth and majesty. The doneo was the Kösl-ūdhyaksha (treasurer) Halāyudha who was a Brāhmaṇa of the Vatsa götra having the Bhargava, Chyāvana, Apnuvat, Aurva and Jomadngnya pravaras and was a student of a portion of the Kāņva branch of the Yajurvēla. The area of the land granted was one hundred vātikās in five plots scattered in different villages.
The first plot of land comprised the village of Yanvachāpațigräma (or Pandha°?) in the Váhattari khanda of the Kalamvo(mbo)ra vishaya, with the exception of the land belonging
to the tāsana (land granted by a charter) pertaining to Rāma-pratirāja. The area of the land was • Soe op. cit., p. 271.
* A similar aonse of the word is also noticed in Telugu, Kunuada and Tamil. It must have been borrowed in Oriya from Telugu.