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NOVEMBER, 1879.) SANSKRIT AND OLD-CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
301
SANSKRIT AND OLD-CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo. C.S., M.R.A.S.
(Continued from p. 288.) No. LX.
graved on the inner sides of the first and last
plates of a grant show through more or less disMONG the copper-plates belonging to the tinctly in reverse on the outer sides of the same
- Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic So- plates. In the present case the plates are of a fair ciety, is a spurious Vala bhingrant of Dhar- average thickness, but the letters are rather a sê na II. dated Saka 400 (A. D. 478-9)',--and unusually deep and show through in such strong also a Vala bh i grant of Dharago na II., relief on the backs of the plates that many of dated in the Valabhi year 252: the latter I them can even be read there in reverse. It will now publish, from the original plates, with a also be seen in the facsimile that the different facsimile.
component parts of one and the same character The grant consists of two plates, each about are frequently far more detached than is 11' long by 7 broad. As will be seen from usually the case. On these grounds, it was the facsimile, they are in a state of very ex- my opinion at first that this grant, instead of cellent preservation. The edges of the plates being engraved by hand with an engraving tool, are raised into rims to protect the writing. The must have been stamped. This opinion was right-hand ring, which was probably only a fully endorsed by the experienced lithographer plain copper ring, has been lost. The left-hand by whom the facsimile was made. But there ring has not been cut; but at some time or other is not a sufficient similarity in the repeated slits have been made in the plates so that it can forms of one and the same letter, for those letters slide out. It is of irregular shape, and about to have been impressed from a raised die cut
" thick. The seal on it is roughly oval, about in reverse, even though two or three different 2 by 1", and has, in relief on a countersunk dies of each letter might have been used. And surface, a seated bull facing to the proper right, a closer inspection made it clear that most of and below it the motto Sri-Bhatakka --for Sri. the curved strokes show distinctly inarks of the Bhatárleka. I have no information as to where working round of a tool worked by hand; this these plates were found.
may be seen, for instance, very clearly in the This inscription gives the usual genealogy facsimile in the r of pra, three times, in l. 5,from Bhatarka down to Dharasên a II., and in the i of śrí, twice, in l. 7,--the result of and then records grants made by him, on the these toolmarks being a succession of blurs on fifteenth day of the dark fortnight of Vai. the outer edges of the curves. Some facsimiles ś å kha of the Valabhi year 252, at the that I shall publish hereafter will illustrate this villages of Madasaras, Viraputra, Pri. point still more markedly. I have therefore thaputra, and I śvarad ê vas na ka. had to abandon my original opinion, which was
Except in respect of the details of the grant, virtually that this was a printed grant. But this inscription is of alınost exactly the same pur- the lithographer still considers that no characport as that published by Dr. Bühler at Vol. VII., ters worked by hand, however hot the plates may p. 68 ; but the tex: is written somewhat more have been made, could show through on the backs carefully. As in the case of that inscription, the of the plates so distinctly as the characters of this officer in whose office it was written is the minister inscription; and, while accepting what I have for peace and war, Skanda bhata,--and the point: 1 out in respect of the curved strokes, he Dútaka is Chirbira. The details of the date still maintains that the heads of the letters, and are precisely the same in both grants.
many other of the straight strokes, were probably It is frequently the case that the letters en stamped with raised dies of different patterns.
Transcription.
First plate. ['] Svasti Valabhi(bhi)taḥ prasabha-pranat-amitrânîm Maitrakâņâm=atula-bala.
sa(sar panna-mandal-Abhôga-samsakta-samprahara-sata-la- Mentioned by Dr. Bhau Dajt at Jour, Bo, Br. R. As. So.. Vol. VIII., p. 244, and by Dr. Bühler at Ind. Ant.. Vol. VII., p. 63.
