Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

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

Page 80

No. 9-MALLAR PLATES OF VYAGHRARAJA
(1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR and G. BHATTACHARYA, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 3.3.1959) According to a report appearing in the Hitarāda of Nagpur, dated the 28th August 1958, four sets of copper plates were recently discovered at the well-known village of Mallar, about 16 miles from Bilaspur in Madhya Pradesh. Three out of the four sets, which are said to have been found by the villagers while digging for foundations, were secured by Mr. M. Sivayya, Exploration Assistant of the Department of Archaeology at Bilaspur, the fourth set being acquired for the Mahant Ghasidas Memorial Museum, Raipur, by Mr. Balchandra Jain, Assistant Curator of the said institution. The plates published in the following pages represent one of the three sets secured by Mr. Sivayya. The other three inscriptions, which were discovered along with the one under study and belong to the rulers of the Sarabhapuriya dynasty, are also being published in this journal. • The set consists of three rectangular plates with their corners rounded off and each measuring approximately 7 inches in length and 3.5 inches in height. The second plate is somewhat thicker than the others. Each plate has a round hole about the centre of the left margin for the seal-ring to pass through. The soal affixed to the ring (about 11-4 inches in circumference and 1.3' in thickness) does not resemble that found with the charters of the Sarabhapuriya kings, even though, as will be seen below, the donor of our record apparently belonged to the same family. The surface of the seal, which is 1.9 inches in diameter and is much corroded, has a thick line dividing it into two halves. The section above the line exhibits three symbols, viz. the side view of a chakra in the left, the head of an animal (probably a lion) to front in the middle, and a conch-shell in the right. The legend below the line, written in Southern characters similar to those employed in writing the text of the document on the plates, reads sri-Vyāghrarājah. There is another symbol below the legend, which is difficult to identify, though it may be the head of an elephant to front. It will be seen that Vyāghraraja's seal is totally unlike the seal of the Sarabhapurlya kings, which exhibits the Gajalakshmi emblem in the upper part and a legend below consisting of a stanza in the Anushțubh metre written in two lines in the box-headed characters of Central India. The first and third plates of the set under study are written on the inner side only, the second plate having writing on both the sides. There are altogether twentyfour lines of writing distributed in the following way: IB-6, IIA-7, IIB-5, and IIIA-6. The sixth line on the third plate consists of a few letters only. The three plates together weigh 53 tolas and the seal with the ring 18 tolas.
As already indicated above, the characters of the record belong to the South Indian alphabet. On palaeographical grounds, the inscription may be assigned to the 6th century A.D. and the characters may be compared with those of records like the Hingniberdi plates' of Vibhurāja, the Khanapur platest of Madhavavarman, the Argā plates of Kāpālivarman, etc. The alphabet of our record is nail-headed and the triangular mark forming the top of the letters is of the linear or hollow type and not of the scooped-out variety. Among the three epigraphs cited above, this characteristic is noticed only in the letters on the first plate of Vibhurāja's grant. Similar nailheaded characters are also noticed in records like the Shorkot inscription of 402 A.D. and the
1 See A.R. Ep., 1958-59, No. 46.
See ibid., 1958-59, Nos. A 5, 7-8; above, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 185 ff. (grant of Jayaraja, year 5); also pp. 28 ff. (grant of Jayaraja, year 9) above and pp. 53 f. (grant of Pravararaja, son of Minamätra-Durgaraja, year 3) below.
• Ibid., Vol. XXIX, Plate facing p. 176. • Ibid., Vol. XXVII, Plates between pp. 316 and 317, . Ibid., Vol. XXXI, Plate fawing p. 232. • Ibid., Vol. XVI, Plate facing p. 15.
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