________________ 212 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [August, 1879. SANSKRIT AND OLD CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS. BY J. F. FLEET, Bo. C. S., M.R.A.S. (Continued from p. 47.) No. LIV. | a piece knocked out of it, and is also almost Of the Gang & or Konga dynasty, six broken in half. The writing on the inside of it copper-plate grants have been published in this ic very clear. The writing on the outside is Journal by Mr. Rice, at Vol. I., p. 360, Vol. II., somewhat defaced, but, with the exception of p. 155, Vol. V., p. 133, and Vol. VII., p. 168; the first two letters of the first two lines, is still --three stone-tablet inscriptions have been perfectly legible. It would not appear so from published by. Mr. Kittel, at Vol. VI., p. 99:- the facsimile, but this is only owing to the plate and one stone-tablet inscription has been pub- not having been cleaned before the facsimile lished, and another noticed, by myself, at Vol. was taken. The language is Sanskrit, down VII., pp. 101 and 112. to 1. 10; after that, it is a mixture of Sanskrit Sir Walter Elliot's collection of original and Old Canarose. I shall notice the characters copper-plates includes two more grants of the further on. same dynasty.-One of them, without date, The inscription purports to record that in carries the genealogy down to Nava kama,- Saka 169 (A.D. 247-8), the Prabha va sarithe younger brother of Srivallabha, who vatsara, king Arivarma bestowed a title of is either identical with, or the successor of, honour and the village of Oreko da, in the Bhuvikrama-Kongaaima hadhiraja, circle of villages called the Mais una du - and then records a grant made by a certain Seventy, upon Madha vabbatta, the son of Erega nga, who was governing the Toro- Govinda bhatta of the Bhrigu gotra, in na du Five-hundred, the Koigal na du recognition of his defeating in public disputation Two-thousand, and the Male Thousand. Who an opponent who maintained the BauddhadocErega ng a was, is not made clear. I bave trine of the non-existence of the living soul. not as yet succeeded in deciphering the whole If this grant were genuine, it would be the of this grant to my satisfaction; but I shall earliest yet known. But, as has already been publish it before long.-The other is the grant pointed out by Dr. Burnell?, the characters in of Arivarma, dated Saka 169, spoken of which it is engraved shew conclusively that it by Prof. Eggeling in his paper on the Inscrip- is a forgery of not earlier than the tenth century tions of Southern India, of which an abstract A. D. In addition to palmographical grounds, is given at p. 38 of the Report of the Second there are other substantial reasons for stamping International Congress of Orientalists. I now as forged, not only this, but also the other publish this grant from the original plates. published copper-plate grants of the same The plates were obtained by Sir Walter Elliot dynasty; such, for instance, as that the dates from Tanjavur, through Mr. W. H. Bayley. contradict each other, and that this grant of Sake They are three in number, about 8" long by 169, and the Merkara grant of the year 388, 33" broad, and, with the seal, they weigh fifty- and the Nagamangala grant of Saka 698, were nine tolas. They have no rims. The ring all engraved by the same Vis vakarmaconnecting them has been cut; it is about charya. These reasons I shall discuss in thick, and 2% in diameter. The seal is detail, when I publish the remaining grant in circular, about ze in diameter; it has the Sir Walter Elliot's collection. In the present representation of a standing elephant, facing to case, even the name of the king who is said to the proper left, in relief on a countersunk make the grant is a mistake ; for in all the other surface. The first and second plates are in inscriptions of this dynasty in which he is mena state of perfect preservation, and the writing tioned, he is called 'Harivarma,' and that on them is very clear. The third plate has had is, undoubtedly, the correct form of his name. Transcription. First plate. . ['] Svasti Jitam=bhagavata gata(ta)-ghana-gagan-abhena Padmanabhena [ll* ] Srimaj-Jahnave(vi)ya-kul-a(a)maSouth-Indian Paleography, 2nd edition, p. 34. * Vol. I., p. 360. 3 Vol. II., p. 155.
