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No. 26-TWO GRANTS OF EARLY GUHILAS
(2 Plates) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 12. 9. 1959)
About the beginning of September 1959, I received for examination one set each of impressions of two copper-plate grants from a gentleman named Rathod Surajmal Vägdia of Surmākā Chuuhrā at Dungarpur in Rajasthan, who was formerly the Archaeologist of the old Dungarpur State. I was told that the impressions were sent to me at the instance of Mahārājkumar Dr. Raghubir Singh of Sitamau. But they were not quite satisfactory and I wanted the original plates for examination. Mr. Vägdia, however, informed me that the original plates could not be secured. He also could not give me any details regarding the findspot of the inscriptions and the circumstances leading to their discovery. The only information I received from him was that about eleven years ago, shortly after the merger of the Dungarpur State, when Mr. Vägdia was no longer an officer of the State, a Bhil brought the plates to him and that, since he was then not in a position to purchase them, he prepared an impression of each of the inscribed faces of the plates and returned them to the Bhil whose address unfortunately he forgot to take down. Considering the importunce of the records, they are edited in the following pages from the impressions referred to above. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mr. Vägdia and the Mahäräjkumar.
Both the inscriptions are apparently engraved on the inner sides of two plates held by two rings each. The first record is engraved on plates measuring about 11.5 inches in length and 5.6 inches in height. The plates, on which the other epigraph is incised, are each about 14.6 inches long and 4.78 inches high. The first inscription contains 26 lines of writing, 14 on one plate and 12 on the other. There are 27 lines in the second epigraph, 12 of which are engraved on the first plate and 15 on the second. The impressions show two ring-holes (about inch in diameter) near the lower margin of the first plate and the upper margin of the second in the first inscription, the intervening space being about 4.2 inches wide. The ring-holes in the corresponding parts of the two plates of the second inscription are much smaller and the space intervening between them is about 5-6 inches. There are also two other holes and traces of a third near the other margin of both the plates in this record.
The characters of both the inscriptions belong to the Siddhamåtrika (i.e. Northern) alphabet of the seventh or eighth century A.D. They closely resemble the alphabet of such inscriptions of the Rajasthan area as the Vasantgadh (old Sirobi State) inscription of Varmalata, dated V.S. 682 (625 A.D.), the Samoli (old Udaipur State) inscription of Stladitya, dated V 9. 703 (846 A.D.), the Nagda (old Udaipur State) inscription of Aparājita, dated V.S. 718 (66) A.D.), the Jhalrap&tan (old Jhalawar State) inscription of Durgagana, dated V. S. 746 (689 A D.), and the Kanaswa (old Kotah State) inscription of Sivagana, dated. V. S. 795 (738 A.D.). It is well known that some letters of the Nagda insoription of 661 A.D., e.g. 8, exhibit more developed forms than in luter
1 The Maharajkumar informs mo that Mr. Vigdia expired on the 20th September soon after he had received back the impressions returned by me.
. Above, Vol. IX, Plate facing p. 190.
Ibid., Vol. XX, Plate facing p. 99. • Ibid., Vol. IV, Plate facing p. 80. . Ind. Ant., Vol. V, Plates between pp. 180 and 181. • Ibid., Vol. XIX, Plate facing p. 68.
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