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No. 29–MALLAR PLATES OF JAYARAJA, YEAR 5
(1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 10.5.1958) A set of three copper plates was recently discovered at the village of Mallar in the Bilaspur District of Madhya Pradesh. The inscription was secuied by Mr. Amarnath Sao of Bilaspur, who showed it to Pandit L. P. Pandeya Sarma of Raigarh, Raipur District, Madhya Pradesh. Pandit Pandeya advised Mr. Sao to send the plates for examination to the office of the Government Epigraphist for India. Mr. Sao was kind enough to agree with the request and the plates were received in my office about the end of April 1958.
The three plates, which have rounded corners, measure each about 5.4 inches in length and 2.95 inches in height. The thickness of the central plate is about inch, the other two plates being thinner (about #inch thick). The plates are strung on a ring 1 inch in thickness and 21 inches in diameter. But the seal, orginally affixed to the ring, is now lost. There are in all 23 lines of writing, six lines each on the inner side of the first plate and the obverse and reverse of the second plate and only five lines on the inner side of the third plate. The weight of the three plates together is 324 tolas and that of the ring only 34 tolas.
The charter is written in 'box-headed' characters and its language is Sanskrit. As regards palaeography, language, orthography and style, the inscription resembles very closely the Ārang platest of the donor of the present grant, which is the only other record of the king so far: discovered. The sign for medial i is made by inserting a dot in the circular sign indicating medial i The upadhmāniya and jihvāmülīya have been used respectively in lines 3 and 13 and lines 8 and 18. The numerical symbol 5 occurs twice in line 23. A horizontal stroke with a dot both above and below has often been used as a mark of punctuation (cf. lines 12, 16, 22). In some cases, a pair of horizontal strokes, one above the other, has been employed to indicate either the mark of punctuation (cf. lines 10, 16 and 17) or the sign for visarga (cf. lines 3 and 11). The normal sign of visarga made of two dots placed one above the other, which is also used in the inscription (cf. bhumidaḥ in line 19), has been once used to indicate a mark of punctuation in line 5. The orthography of the record is characterised by the use of double nasal and the reduplication of t after a nasal. Some consonants have often been reduplicated before and after r. The word simha has been written singha as in the Arang plates of Jayaraja and some other records of the kings of Sarabhapura.
The record is not dated in any era. It registers a charter of king Jayarāja (Mahä-Jayaraja) issued from Sarabhapura which seems to have been situated near modern Sirpur in the Raipur District. The charter was issued on the Afth day of the month of Kārttika in the Afth year of the reign of Jayarāja who very probably flourished about the middle of the sixth century A. D., although his exact reign period cannot be determined.
The inscription begins with the auspicious word svasti and a sentence in lines 1-5 referring to the order of Mahā-Jayarāja, described as a paramabhagavata, issued from Sarabhapura to the agriculturist house-holders of Kadambapadrullaka in Antaranālaka. The name of the gift villagu Kadambapadrullaka seems to be a combination of the names of two contiguous localities called Kadambapadra and Ullaka. The next sentence in lines 5-10 quotes the text of the order which is to the effect that the said village was granted by the king in favour of the Brāhmana Kapardisvāmin of the Kautsa götra. The village was gianted as a permanent rent-free holding on the Corp. In. Ind., Vol. III, pp. 191 fl. and Platos.
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