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No. 44 PALIAD PLATES OF BHIMADEVA I, V.S. 1112
(1 Plate) A. L. BABHAM, LONLON
(Received on 30. 8. 1958) This set of plates was discovered at Pallad, a village in Eastern Saurashtra, just off the niain road from Wadhwan to Bhavnagar, about ten miles north-west of Botad and about the same distance south-west of Ranpur. The plates, deposited in the Rajkot Museum, were sent in 1955 to the Government Epigraphist for India, Cotacamund, for examination. The inscription is edited below from inked impressions and photographs neceived from the Government Epigrapbist for India.
The set consists of two plates, each measuring 9' long, 5'4" broad and '1' thick. They are held together by a ring (about 1.75' in diameter) passing through holes (about 15' in diameter) made about the centre of the lower margin of the first plate and the upper anargin of the second. No seal is attached to the plates which, together with the ring, weigh 133 tolas. The plates are engraved on the inner sides only and the writing is fairly well preserved.
The characters are Nagari of the eleventh century A.D. and generally resemble those of records like the Palanpur plates of Bhimadēva I and the Kadi plates of Mülaräju. No speciul remarks are called for in respect of orthography.
The date of the inscription (line 1) is given as V.S. 1112, Chaitra bu. 16. It is further stated in line 4 that there was a lunar eclipse on the said date. These details correspond to the 2nd April, 1056 A.D.
The giant was issued when Mahārājādhiraja Bhimadöva was residing at Akäsikā-grama (lines 1-2). Bhimadēva is evidently the first king of that name of the Chaulukya family of Gujarat, who ruled in c. 1024-1066 A.D. The present record does not add any new information of historical or chronological importance.
The vrant is addressed (lines 2-4) to the king's officials, the Brāhmanas and the people of the 116 villages attached to the city of Vāyada. Its object (lines 4-8) is to record a grant made by the king in favour of the Jain monastery situated at the said city. The grant consisted of piece of Innd measuring two halas and belonging to a merchant named Sädäka, together with another plot meusuring two Kalasikävāpas, which was attached to the said land of Sādāka and was separated from the border of Guduhulă by a chari (pasture land).
The position of the merchant Sädāka in the transaction is not altogether clear. Since the peasants are toid that they inust now pay their dues direct to the monastery, it seems that he was not the occupant of the land, but, until the issue of the grant, was the landlord and intermediary betwecu the cultivators and the king. Evidently he was now deprived of his rights over the land in question : but the grant gives no evidence of the means whereby this was done. Possibly Sädāka died without leaving heirs; or he may have had his land confiscated for an offence
1 The plates aro registered in 4. R. Bp., 1954-58, No. A 15, and are briefly noticed ibid., pp. 11-12. . Above, Vol. XXI, pp. 171 ff. and Platos. * Ind. Ant., Vol. VI, pp. 191 ff. and Plates.
Kalasika-draya-vapa kalusika-udpa-dvaya means a plot of land sufficient for sowing two Kalasikas of sood. Kalasikaviya reminds us of Dronanay a known from many records.
The word chari in this song is not found in standard Sanakrit Dictionaries, but is common in this sonno ir Hindi.
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