Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

Author(s): D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 57

No. 6-MALLAR PLATES OF JAYARAJA, YEAR 9
(1 Plate)
G. BHATTACHARYA, OOTACAMUND, AND M. SIVAYYA, BILASPUR
(Received on 3.3.1959)
This set of three copper plates, which is being published here for the first time, was discovered along with three others at the village of Mallar in the Bilaspur District of Madhya Pradesh. Of the other three charters which are also being published in the pages of this journal, one was issued by Jayaraja in his 5th regnal year while two belong to Pravararaja and Vyaghraraja.1
The plates have rounded corners and measure approximately 6 inches by 3-2 inches each. They have each a square hole about the middle of the left margin for the seal-ring to pass through. The three plates altogether contain 26 lines of writing, the inner sides of the first and third plates and both sides of the second having each 6 lines and the second side of the third plate 2 lines only. The seal resembles that attached to the king's other charters and the legend represents Jayaraja as the son of Prasanna (i.e. Prasannamatra) and the vanquisher of his enemies by his valour. The three plates together weigh 47 tolas and the seal with the ring 39 tolas.
The characters belong to the box-headed" alphabet and the language of the record is anskrit. Excepting the five imprecatory and benedictory verses, the whole charter is written in prose, the style being the same as in the other two charters of Jayaraja and those of his descendants. There is some difference in the formation of medial i in the present record and in the other epigraphs of Jayaraja. While in the other inscriptions it is formed by inserting a dot in the circular sign indicating medial i, in our grant it is usually made with a small vertical stroke joined to the bottom inside the circular sign (cf. ni and si in vilasini-si° in line 2). But the medial i in fri (in line 4 is slightly different as here we find a small hook turned to the left instead of the vertical stroke. The upadhmaniya and jihvämüliya occur in lines 3, 15 and 20. The sign for anusvära has been indicated by a small horizontal stroke on the top of a letter and that for visarga with two small horizontal strokes placed one above the other. Punctuation is also indicated by a similar stroke, either single or double (cf. lines 16, 20, 21, 23). The numerical figures for 9 and 5 have been used in the record. As regards orthography, the reduplication of consonants with the superscript and subscript r is often noticed. There are several cases of wrong. sandhi.
An interesting feature of the record is that the lower part of the first side (from lines 9 ff.) and the entire second side of the second plate and the inner side of the third plate are written on erasures, traces of the earlier writing being clear in many places. Line 10 stops abruptly about the middle of the obverse of the plate and line 11 begins at a considerable distance from the left margin and the original writing in the intervening space is beaten in. The names of the two donees of the present charter in lines 9-10 are both written on an erasure. It is clear that the grant was originally made in favour of several donees, that their names were beaten in at a later date and that the names of the two donees were re-engraved in the space thus created. That the number of donees was originally more than two is also clear from the passage nami(m-a)tisrishtakō, referring to the donees in the sixth case-ending plural, at the end of the gap in line 11. This fact,
1 See above, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 155 ff.; below, pp. 47 ff., 53 ff.
These are the Arang and Mallar plates both issued in the 5th regnal year of Jayaraja. See OII, Vol. III, pp. 19 ff. and Plates; above, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 155 ff. and Plates.
(28)