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No. 50–RATNAGIRI PLATES OF SOMAVAMSI KARNA
(2 Plates) DEBALA MITRA, CALOUTTA
(Received on 14.10.1958) In 1958, while camping at Ratnagiri (lat. 20° 38' 30"; long. 86° 21') in the Cuttack District, Orissa, in connection with the excavation of the Buddhist remains at the hill-top, I came to know that a copper plate lying with a villager had been removed to Puri by & Police Officer. An enquiry revealed that the plate is now in the possession of Pandit Sadasiva Ratha Sarma of Puri. Though it has not yet been possible for me to examine this plate in original, it appears almost certain that it is none other than the one already published by Narayana Tripathi in the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. XVI, 1930, pp. 206-210 and Plate.
In the hope that the remaining two plates (the Sõmavambi charters being triphali-tāmraśāsanas) might still be available at Ratnagiri itself, I proceeded to make enquiries of the local people and succeeded in locating one of the plates (the third of the complete set) with Shri Raghunath Jena, ex-zamindar of the village. A further search brought to light the second plate in the series, which was lying in the possession of a local gentleman named Dasu Mallik. These two plates, together with the one previcusly published, complete the charter. It was reported to me that all the three plates, originally strung together on a ring (now lost), had been found in an earthern pot by the late Shri Sanatana Mallik, father of the above-mentioned Dasu Mallik, about fifty years back in the south-eastern part of a mound, locally known as Ränipukhuri (literally 'the queen's tank”), situated at the top of the hill at Ratnagiri.
Both the plates edited here are well-preserved and measure 14 inches in length, the widths of the second and third plates being respectively 8-9 and 8-7 inches. They have a ring-hole, .8 inch in diameter, at the centre of the left margin. A portion was cut off from both the plates evidently for testing the metal. The second plate (i.e. the first of the set available to me), weighing 3 seers and 13 tolas, is inscribed on both the sides, while the third, which weighs 2 seers and 564 tolas and has a raised rim, is engraved only on one side. The second plate contains eighteen lines of writing on the obverse as well as on the reverse and the third only fourteen lines, the average number of letters per line being thirtythree. The letters are nicely and boldly engraved and have the average height of 4 inch.
The palaeography of the charter resembles that of the Orissan inscriptions of about the twelfth century. The top horizontal line of the letters has a triangular hook below on the left side. The consonants p and y are often undistinguishable ; so also are ch and r. The medial sign of u closely resembles that of subscript v.
The language is Sanskrit and the record is written partly in verse and partly in prose, though the influence of the local language is noticed in the word Atthāvisa for Ashļāvim sa (line 33) as well as in the words indicating taxes, viz. chitola, andhāruā, pratyandhāruā, antarāvaddi, rintakävaddi and vasāvaki (lines 38 and 39).
Ás regards orthography, apart from obvious scribal mistakes, the following features may be mentioned the use of sh for 8 in Köshala (line 19) and Toshali (line 33), of s for sh in sața (line
[Seo below, pp. 269-70.-Ed.] • The excavations at this mound revealed two full-fledged monasteries.
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