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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1889.
respects, will make progress in the religion, so that this will be for the welfare and happiness of the people. I also make such arrangements as I believe suited to provide for happiness, whether amongst my distant subjects or amongst those who are near to me and amongst my relations. Hence it is I who watch over the whole body of my officers. All sects receive from me honours of different kinds, but it is the personal adherence [to their doctrines which] I consider to be the essential requisite. In the twenty-seventh year after my coronation had I this edict engraved.
SANSKRIT AND OLD-KANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.L.E. No. 175.-BOMBAY ASIATIC SOCIETY'S COPPER-PLATE GRANT or BHIMADEVA II.
STMA-SAMVAT 93. I edit this inscription, which has not previously been published, from the original plates, which I obtained for examination, in 1878, from the Library of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. I have no information as to where they were found. A lithograph of the inscription will be published hereafter, in Indian Inscriptions, No. 17.
The plates, which are inscribed on one side only, are two in number; each measuring about 91 by 6" The edges of them were slightly raised into rims, to protect the writing; and though the surfaces of the plates are a good deal corroded by rast, the inscription is legible, without any points of doubt, throughout. - In the lower part of the first plate, and the upper part of the second, there are holes for two rings to connect them. The rings are plain copper rings, each about thick and 23' in diameter. They had both been cut, when the grant came under my notice. There are no indications of & seal having been attached to either of them, and abstracted from it. And the seal of this grant, if there was one, is not now forthcoming. - The characters are Nagari, of the regular type of the period and locality to which the inscription refers itself. They include, in line 1, the decimal figures 1, 3, and 9. The average size of the letters is about The engraving is bold and good. -The language is Sanskrit ; and the whole record is in prose, except for one benedictive and imprecatory verse quoted in line 13-14. In line 6 we have the Prakrit word vachchha, for the Sanskrit vatsa. In respect of orthography, the only points that call for notice are (1) the constant use of the anusvára instead of the proper nasal, e.g. in mandal-asatahpáti, line 3; (2) tho nse of for b throughont, in vráhmana, lines 4 and 8, and in vôdhayaty, line 4; and (3) the use of 1 for s, in éva, line 3; nivási, line 4; and sahaérdņi bvargé, line 13.
The insoription is one of the Chaulukya king Bhimadova II. of Anhilwad. It is non-sectarian ; the object of it being to record the grant of some land to a Brahman.
The places mentioned in the inscription are, the city of Anahilapataka, where Bhîmadêya II. was, when he notified this grant; Sahasachana, the village in which the land granted was situated; V kariy, a village mentioned in defining the boundaries of the land ; and Prasannepura, the town from which the family of the grantee came. And, as we learn from the preamble, BahasachAnA and Vekariyê are to be looked for in the Kachchha mandala or province of Kachchha; which must have been more or less identical with the modern *Cutch' State ; and which the record describes as being enjoyed by Bhimadêva II. himself, as if the province were private property of his, assigned to him apart from the general revenues of the kingdom.
As regards the date of this record, in line 1 we have the details of the year 93, in decimal figures, of an unspecified era; the month Chaitra ; the bright fortnight; the civil day 11 (and with it the eleventh tithi); and Ravi, i. e. Råvivåra or Sunday. And from line 5 we learn that the grant was made on that day, at the festival of a samkranti, which can only be the Mesha-Samkranti or entrance of the Sun into Aries. The era that is quoted, is the Simha era; which is mentioned under that name in the Verawal inscription of Arjunadeva of Aphilwad,
See ante, Vol. XI. p. 242, Text, line 3; and Vol. XVI. p. 147.
