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No. 52--VELIGALANI GRANT OF KAPILESVARA, SAKA 1380
(1 Plate) D. C. BIRCAR and K. H. V. BARMA, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 13. 12. 1958) This is an incomploto sott of ten plates which were obtained for examination nearly quarter of a century ago from an advocate of Bapatla in the Guntur District. The first plate of the set, which apparently contained about ten lines of writing on the inner side of it, is lost. It is stated that the advocato secured the plates from one of his clients. But the original provenance of the inscription is not nown. The record was published by the late Raja Saheb L. H. Jagadeb of Tekkali in the Journal of the Bombay Historical Society, Vol. VI, pp. 94 ff. (without illustration). But his treatment of the subject is quite unsatisfactory. . The plates measure about 14 inches in length and 7 inches in height (except the eighth plate which is only 6 inches high). They have raised rims and their borders are about 1 inch thick. There is & ring-hole (about 1 inch in diameter) in the plates at a distance of 10 inches from the left margin. The ring, which held the plates together originally, and the seal that may have been affixed to it are both lost. The total weight of the ten plates is 1367 tolas.
: The plates bear writing on both the sides. But the record is a palimpsest, being engraved on an earlier grant which, with the exception of the concluding lines in Sanskrit verse, was almost completely beaten in. The names of certain donees of this earlier charter together with their gotras can be read with some confidence. The numbers of the plates in the original document, which were incised in the left margin on their obverse, were not beaten in. The concluding lines of the original grant show that it was also a record of Kapilēsvara, the donor of the record that was later incised on the plates. The circumstances leading to the cancellation of the earlier document cannot, however, be determined.
The plates are numbered in the Telugu-Kannada numerals. But the numbers refer to the position of the plates in the original document as already indicated above. The figure 4, e.g., occurs in the left margin on the obverse of the first of the plates available. This is really the second plate of the present set and was apparently the fourth plate of the original document. There are 10 lines of writing on most of the inscribed faces. On the reverse of the last plate, there is the conventional representation of a dagger which is generally found at the end of the charters of the Süryavamsi Gajapatis of Orissa. This was meant to represent the king's signature on the original document later inscribed on copper plates. To the right of the representation of the sword, the figure of a standing elephant, the emblom of the Gajapatis (literally, 'the lords of elephants'), is engraved. We know that the figure of an elephant is affixed to the seal of the Rajahmundry plates oi Raghudēva, the nephew and viceroy of Gajapati Kapilēsvara. Beyond the elephant on the last plate, there are the representations of the crescent moon and the sun, both of which are often found in medieval epigraphs as an indication of the permanency of the grants recorded therein. There are also representations of the sun and a lotus beneath the above figures of the moon and the sun. A lotus is also seen engraved on the obverse of the same plate, in the left margin near the ring-hole.
14. R. Ep., 1934-35, C. P. No. 17.
. Above, Pg, 18. Ct. the figure of an elephant on a stone bearing an inscription of Gajapati Purushottama (811, Vol. X, No. 729).
( 275.)
