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No. 27--CHIRUVROLI GRANT OF HAMBIRA, SAKA 1383
(1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR AND K. H. V. SARMA, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 14. 11. 1959)
This is a set of five copper-plates discovered in the year 1941 by the inhabitants of the village of Nemalikallu near Rāvela in the Sattenapalli Taluk of the Guntur District while they were digging the earth. A ring with the seal bearing the emblem of an elephant, said to have been found with the plates, is now missing. The inscription was noticed in the Annual Report on South Indian Emigraphy, 1941-42, as C.P. Nos. 4-5, and was published, with the exclusion of the Oriya part, by N. Venkataramanayya in the Telugu Journal Bhārati, Vol. XVIII, Part II, pp. 515 ff.
Three of the five plates of the set bear writing in Telugu characters on both the sides (IA-14, IB–18, IIA-15, IIB-15, IIIA-17, IIIB-17) and the fourth plate contains four lines in Oriya on one side only, the last plate having no writing at all. The plates are not of uniform size. The first thiee plates bearing writing in Telugu characters measure about 104 inches in length and 6 inches in height and have slightly raised rims. But only two of them (plates I-II) contain the ring hole (about " in diameter) towards the left margin. The third plate has a circle of the same dimension engraved at the proper place; but it was not drilled through for the ring to pass. In spite of this fact, the writing on this plate suggests that it was a part of the charter engraved on the first and second plates. It is interesting to note in this connection that the third plate contains the names of a number of donees in addition to the list of donees enumerated on the second plate. These threu plates together weigh 180 tolas. The other two plates are smaller in size. One of them bearing writing in Oriya characters measures about 8 inches in length and 54 inches in height whereas the other plate having no writing is 9 inches in length and 6 inches in height. These two plates, which do not appear to have belonged to the same charter, together weigh 50 tolas.
On the reverse of the first plate towards the right lower margin, there is the conventional representation of a sword which is generally found at the end of the charters of the Süryavarat Gajapatis of Orissa. This stands for the king's signature on the original document, later inscribed on the copper plates. Similar representations are also found on the fourth and fifth plates. The plates are not numbered.
The palaeography of the Telugu part of the epigraph very closely resembles that of the grante of Raghudēva and the Veligalani grant of Kapilēsvara published above. No distinction is made between the medial signs of i and i, of e and é and of o and 0. The letter ! resembles the modern form of k. There is a vertical stroke on the top of the letter r in words like Mēslamiru Chiruvrole, Yaragum tala, Yaru-bhatta, etc. The sign of aspiration is used only in some cases. The letters th and dh are distinguished clearly as in kathitam (line 31) and sarakshan-ārtham (line 72) and Madhava (line 53) and Gaṁgādhara (lines 63, etc.), etc. Another feature of the palaeography of the record is that, in some cases ry and rv are written with the full form of r instead of its super scriptal form while subscriptal forms of y and v are added to it; cf. sarvāṇi (line 18), Timmayārya bhyāṁ (lines 30-31), bhāryā (line 64), eto. Anusvāra is invariably used for final m and the class nasals. The characters ot the Oriya section are similar to those of the Oriya writing in the Veligalani grant referred to above. 1 Above, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 1 ff. ; Pp. 275 ff.
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