Indian Antiquary Vol 18

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 18

10
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1889.
diameter. This ring bad been cut before the time when the grant came under Mr. Fleet's notice; but there is no reason for supposing that the present ring and seal are not the ones properly belonging to this plate. On the ring there slides a bell-shaped seal, about 27' high from top to bottom; it fits on to the ring by a circular opening, about * in diameter, in the lower end of it. The surface of the seal is circular, about 2' in diameter. In relief on a slightly countersunk surface, it has, at the top, a representation of Garuda, with the body of a man and the head of a bird, kneeling half front and half to the proper right, but with the face turned quite round in profile to the proper right; across the centre, the legend értMadanapáladévah 1; and at the bottom, a śnkha or conch-shell.-The average size of the letters is about t". The charactets are Nagari.-The language is Sanskrit, with nothing remarkable about it, except that in lines 15 and 16 there occurs the unusual phrase á padmasadmanð háhákántani yávat, in place of the ordinary á-chandrúrkam. -As regards orthography, 6 is throughout written by the sign for v; the dental sibilant is 39 times employed for the palatal sibilant (e.g. in asitadyuti, line 1, Yusovigraha and yasaḥ, line 2, samit-ásésha, line 3, &c.), and the palatal sibilant for the dental sibilant in éva-dattán, line 20, and sahasráni, line 21; and the dentaln is used instead of the anuscára in vanéa, line 1. A few other mistakes will be pointed out and corrected in the transcript of the text.
Thu inscription is one of the Paramabhatáraka, Mahdrájddhiraja, and Paramésvara, M8danapaladôve (or, as he calls himself in line 23, Madanadeva,) of Kanyakubja (or Kananj), who records that his father, the Paramabhatjáraka, Mahárájálhirója, and Paraméšvara, Chandradeva, when at Benares, granted the village of Ahuama, in the Dhanesaramaus pattala, to the Brahman Vamanasvâmišarman, a student of the Simavêda. And the date on which this grant was made by Chandra dova,' is stated in lines 11 and 12), both in words and in figures, to have been Monday, the third lunar day of the bright half of the month Magha of the year 1154, uttarayana-samkrantau.
That there is something remarkable about this date, or that, at any rate, the term uttarayana-savikrantau cannot have here its ordinary and well-known meaning "on the sun's entrance upon its northern course," is evident from the date itself. For the uttarayanasanileránti, which introduces the solar month Migha, must necessarily precede the new-moon which introduces the bright half of the lunar Magha, and it therefore cannot possibly take place on the third day of the bright half of the lunar Mágha. It is, of course, possible that the grant may have been actually made on the occasion of the uttardyana-sankranti, and recorded on a subsequent date; but there is nothing to show that such was really the case. And. I would rather confess that there is something here which, at present, I do not understand; and I can only draw attention to the date given ante, Vol. X. p. 188, in which the uttarayanasaukránti apparently is similarly coupled with the fifth of the bright half of Magha; and to two other dates, quoted ante, Vol. VIII. pp. 191 and 192, in which it has been coupled with certain days of the months Phålguna and Chaitra, when the sun can never enter upon its northern course. -Omitting the reference to the uttardyani-sankránti, I find that the third day of the bright half of Migha of the northern or southern Vikrama year 1154, current, corresponds to 19 January, A.D. 1097, which was a Monday, as required and was the 27th day of the solar Magha); for, on that day, the third tithi of the bright half ended about 10 hours after mean sunrise (for Ujjain). And the third day of the bright half of Magba of the
See below, note 40.
• Dr Hall took the date to refer to the time when the deed was ordered to be drawn up by Chandradeva's son Madanapaladeva, solely because, in Dr. Hall's opinion, one would expect to read, in line 12, mitena instead of anatra, if the data were meant to refer to Chandradeve's original grant. But matud has undoubtedly to be
aferred to Chandradeva's original grant, and its use is perfectly correct, because the agent of inátud must be the same as the agent of praiatta (in sanf pitya pradatta iti) in line 18.
In the numorons dates before me which mention an uttarliyana-or makara-samhleranti, that Benkranti is gone rally coupled with a day of the bright or dark half of Pausha; and I can at present recall only two dates where, in
northern year, the same sarktinti in (rightly) coupled with a day of the dark half of Migba. The whole subjeot Apparently is too intrioste to be treated here incidentally.