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OCTOBER, 1884.]
SANSKRIT AND OLD-CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
SANSKRIT AND OLD-CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS. BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.E.A.S., C.I.E. (Continued from p. 250.)
No. CL.
AT T pp. 119 to 124 above, I have published two grants, and noticed a third, of the Gånga Maharaja Indravarma, dated respectively in the years 128, 146, and 91, of some unspecified era. In the course of my remarks on those grants, at page 120, I mentioned some rather later grants connected with these three. I now deal with these later grants.
The present grant' is another of those that were found together with the grant of Nandaprabhanjanavarmâ, No. CXXXVIII. pp. 48 ff. above, at 'Chicacole' in the Ganjam' District of the Madras Presidency, and were presented by Mr. Grahame to the Madras Museum. It was obtained by me, for the purpose of editing it, through the kindness of Mr. Sewell, C.S.
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The grant consists of three plates, each about 7" long by 28" broad. The edges of the plates are here and there fashioned slightly thicker; but not so uniformly or in so marked a way as to show whether this was done intentionally, to serve as a raised rim to protect the writing. The inscription is in perfect preservation throughout. The ring, on which the plates are strung, is about 1" thick and 3" in diameter; it had not been cut when the grant came into my hands. The seal on the ring is oval, about 1 by 18"; and it has, in relief on the surface of the seal itself,-not, as is usually the case, on a countersunk surface,-the figure of a bull, couchant to the proper right, with the moon above it. The weight of the three plates is 548 tolas, and of the ring and seal, 193 tolas,total, 74 tolas. The language is Sanskrit throughout; and the style agrees closely throughout with the style of the three grants of Indravarmâ mentioned above.
The order recorded in this inscription is issued, as in the three grants of Indravarma, from the victorious camp or residence situated at the city of Kalinganagara (line 2), by the glorious Devendravarmadeva (1. 11), who has had the stains of the Kali age
1 No. 158 in Mr. Sewell's published List of Copperplate grants. Noticed by me, ante Vol. X. p. 243, No. 4. Usually the sun and moon are both represented. We have another instance, in which the moon alone appears, in the seal of No. CXLIV. p. 137 above.
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removed by performing obeisance to the god Śiva under the name of Gokarnasvami (1. 4)," established on the pure summit of the mountain Mahendra (1. 2); who is a most devout worshipper of the god Mahêévara (ll. 9-10);and who is the son of the Maharaja Anantavarmadêva, the glory of the family of the Gaugas (11. 10-11). It is addressed to the Kutumb residing at the village of Tamarachheru in the Varåhavartani vishaya (11. 11-12),-evidently the same village with the Tamaracheruva that is the subject of the grant of Indravarma of the year 128. The passage that follows is incorrect as it stands. But with the emendations that I have proposed in the text, it records that, on the occasion of an eclipse of the sun (1. 15), and after performing libations of water before Gokarnabhattiraka on the summit of the mountain Mahendra (11. 14-15), the said village of Tâmarachhera was given by Dêvêndravarma to three hundred Brahmans of the Vâjasanêya charana (1. 13). The boundaries of the village are defined in lines 15 to 19; but this passage contains nothing of importance. Lines 19 to 22 contain two of the usual benedictive and imprecatory verses. In lines 22 and 23 there is given, in words, the date of the fifty-first year of the augmenting victorious reign of the Gangaya lineage. And lines 23 and 24 record that the inscription was written or composed by the Samanta Nagaraja, and was engraved by the akshasáli Sarvadêva.
I have two other inscriptions, closely connected with the present one.-The first of them, from the 'Vizagapatam' District, is issued from the city of Kalinganagara by the glorious Dêvêndravarmâ,-the supreme lord of the whole of Kalinga; the most devout worshipper of the god Mahêévara; the ornament of the spotless family of the GAngas; and the son of the glorious Mahárája Anantavarma. It records the grant of some villages in the Dâvadamadavam vishaya by Dharmakhadi, the
See page 121 above, note 41. See page 121 above, note 49. See page 50 above, note 19.
No. 93 in Mr. Sewell's published List of Copperplate grants. Noticed by me, ante Vol. X. p. 243, No. 6.
