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MAY, 1899.)
GRANT OF JAYACHCHANDRA; VIKRAMA-SAMVAT 1232.
129
COPPER-PLATE GRANTS OF THE KINGS OF KANAUJ.
BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN.
(Continued from page 21). E.-Benares College Copper-Plate Grant of Jayachchandra.
The (Vikrama) year 1232. T HE plate which holds this inscription appears to have been discovered, about twenty years
1 ago, by a man ploughing about six miles north-east of the city of Benares, at a village named Sihvar;' and it is now deposited in the Library of the Benares Sanskrit College. The text of it has been published before, by Babû Sivaprasad, in the Pandit, Vol. IV. pp. 95-96 (September, 1869).
The inscription is on a single plate, measuring about 201" by 10", and inscribed on one side only. The edges of it were partly fashioned thicker, and partly raised into rims, to protect the writing; but the middle portion of the inscribed surface is somewhat worn. In the centre of the plate there is a crack, caused by tearing out the ring, and extending twothirds of the way down from the top; and another, extending about two inches up from the bottom; so that the plate is almost in two pieces. Also, the lower proper right corner is broken away, causing the loss of twelve aksharas. But these, and the damaged akslutrits elsewhere, can easily be supplied; and, with the exception of two or three aksharad in line 20, there is no doubt whatever about the actual reading of any part of the inscription. In the upper part of the plate, there is a hole for a ring. But the ring has been abstracted, by slitting the plate from the ring-hole to the edge; and, with the seal attached to it, is not now forthcoming. - The average size of the letters is about ". The characters are Nagari, and the language is Sanskrit. The inscription is carefully written, and in respect of orthography I have only to note that b is denoted by the sign for v everywhere except in babhramur,1 line 9; and that the dental sibilant has been seven times employed for the palatal sibilant, and the palatal seven times for the dental sibilant. A few other mistakes will be pointed out in the text.
The inscription is one of the Paramabhattáraka, Mahárdjádhiraja, and Paramésvara, Jayachchandradova, who records that, when at Benares, on the occasion of performing the ceremony of giving a name to (his) the king's, son Haribchandra, he granted the two villages of Sarau[] and [XP]mayt, situated in the Ma[na]ra pattuld, to the Brühman, the mahapandita Hrishikêśaśarman. And the date on which this grant was made, is stated, both in words and in decimal figures, to have been, - Sunday, the 13th lunar day of the bright half of Bhadrapada, of the year 1232. The grant was written by the mahákshapatalika, or great keeper of records, the l'hakkura Sripati.
As regards the date, taking 1232 to be a year of the Vikrama era, the possible equivalents for Bhadrapada sukla 13 would be :
for the northern year 1232 current, - Monday, 12 August, A.D. 1174 ; for the northern year 1232 expired, or
the southern year 1232 current, - Sunday, 31 August, A. D. 1175; for the southern year 1232 expired, - Friday, 20 August, A.D. 1176. The actual date, therefore, clearly is Sunday, 31 August, A. D. 1176; but our record furnishes no means of deciding whether the year 1232 spoken of should be taken to be the northern expired year or the southern current year.
The villagos granted, and the pattalá in which they were situated, I am unable to identify.
1 The same romark applies to every one of the following six inscriptions (F to K). - On that day, the 13th tithi of the bright fortnight ended about 15 h. 50 m. After mean sunrise.
