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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
VOL. XXXII
edges on three sides, while the right margin is left plain. This rim is about 'broad and is also as much in thickness. The plates are numbered in serial order on their inner sides in the breadth of this rim. They have ring holes about in diameter near their left margin but the ring which must have passed through them and held them together is now missing. The plates weigh 510 tolas. In the right margin of the 2nd and 4th plates there is a slight knob-like projection, the purpose of which is not clear."
The inscription on the plates is neatly executed and is in a good state of preservation: The letters, almost all of which attained their modern forms by the date of this record, are deeply insoribed and are very beautiful. Very rarely do we oome across such specimen of handsome Telugu writing in the grante issued in the early post-Kākutiya period. The script is Telugu which was ourrent in the first half of the fourteenth century A. D. in the Andhra country and is akin to that found in the Dönepūndi grant of Nāmaya-näyaka.
No distinction is made between the vowels short and longe (11. 118, 125 and 126), the letters bā and bhā, dand th, and the secondary forms of the vowels & and é and o and 0. The sign for the aspitate, seen in the grant in a few cages in dha, pha and bha, resembles a small inverted crescent attached below the right arm of the letter. It definitely came into use by the first quarter of the thirteenth century. It can clearly be seen in ratna-garbhāyāḥ (1.8), obhida vibhinnair, and vibhakte (1. 11), "lābhe (1. 33), phalaih (1.60), praudha (1. 117), eto. This, however, is not always used uniformly. The remaining aspirated letters have quite distinct forms to differentiate them from their unaspirated counterparts. Superscript , resembling the modern avagraha in & diagonal position, is attached at the right top of the letter. The final forms of and n oocur frequently, as in 11. 30, 32 and 33. In almost all cases the anusvära has taken the place of final m. The only letters in the record that differ from those of the present day are t, d, dh, $ and . The only difference between t and d lies in the top stroke. The letter d exactly resembles d of the present day, but without the loop inside in the right arm and dh resembles the present day d. N can easily be identified even though it differs slightly from its present form. Among orthographical peopliarities, & superfluous anusvāra is sometimes inserted before double N, or before n followed by a consonant as in runnnata (1.61), Purhnny-adhyāpaka (1.132), idāṁnyao (1.151, 155) ; dhdh is written instead of ddh if the letter dh is doubled after r (11. 70, 140, 141, and 144); the consonants, g, ch, j, n, t and d sometimes and y invariably are doubled after r; the palatal $ is often used in the names of the donees for the dental 8 as in Siddhaya (1. 110), Singaya (1. 117) and so on.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit with the exception of the passage in Telugu describing the boundaries of the village granted. The language, excepting the passage desoribing the boundaries, is chaste and is entirely in verse. This is a beautiful inscriptional kavya in Sanskrit, replete with alamkāras, the like of which is rarely seen in the grants of the medieval period Unfortunately the name of the composer is not given. Another noteworthy feature of this grant is the absence in it of the usual imprecatory verses that are generally found at the close of the insoriptions. The inscription ends with the signature of the donor which reads as Prola-néni vrälu (the signature of Prola-nēļu).
The passage describing the boundaries is shabbily insoribed, quite in contrast with the preceding Sanskrit part. The Telugu forms käli and kāluva are both used to donote a canal; of these the former form has gone out of use now. Kroppur-gäluva (1. 147) means a canal that was dug. This is a compound of krochchu and käluva, of which the former is a verbal adjective. Krochche is the root. It means' to make a low depression, to dig with an iron crow-bar or other instru
* Above, Vol. IV, pp. 366 ft.
