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254
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1892.
rája, the illustrious Dharmapaladeva (lines 28-29). After the words ósi svasti and a verse in honour of both Buddha and the ruling king, it gives (in lines 4-24), in thirteen verses of which a full translation will be given below, the genealogy of Dévapaladóva. All we learn from this part of the inscription is, thut Dévapala was the son and successor of the king Dharmapala and his wife Rannadovi, who was a daughter of the illustrious Parabala of the Rashtrakuta family, and that Dharmapala aguin was the son and successor of the king Gopala. Dévapala, as well as his father and grandfather, are eulogized as very powerful monarchs, who each of them are represented as baving conquered almost the whole of India. I have already had occasion to state that in later inscriptions of the same dynasty Dévapâla is described as the brother's son of Dharmapala, and that I would identify his father-in-law Parabala with the Rashtrakūta Govinda III, also called 'Srivallabha (or 'Sriballaha), etc., but I must add here that my chief reason for proposing this identification is the circumstance that we know Govinda III to have ruled at the beginning of the 9th century A. D., and that this would be about the time when Dharmapala's father Gopala may be supposed to have lived.
The wording of the formal part of the grant (lines 24-46) is much the same as in the three other known copper-plate grants of the so-called Påla kings. As regards the object of the grant, Dévapaladóva, from his camp at Mudgagiri on the Ganges, informs his officials and the people concerned that he has given the village of Meshika, which was in the Krimila riskaya of the Srinagara bhukti, to the bha!!a Vibêkaratamiára, a son of the bhafta Srivarâ harata and son's son of the bhatta Visvarâta, of the Aupamanyava gôtra and Asvalâyana sákhá; and he orders the people to make over to the donee wbatever may be due to him in accordance with this donation. Among the numerous officials, enumerated in this part of the grant, two occur who are not mentioned in the other Påla grants, the pramátri and sarabhanga (in line 32). I am unable to explain these terms, and can only state that the same officials are mentioned, nnder the names of pramatára (or perhaps maharajaprandtára) and sarabhanga, in line 11 of the Pandukêśvar grant of Lalitasûradêva, published in the Proceedings, Bengal As. Soc., 1877, p. 73; und that we find prametri in Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I. p. 88, 1. 49, p. 115, 1. 32; pramátára, ib. p. 72, 1. 9; and mahápramdtára, ib. p. 73, 1. 17.
The formal part of the grant closes (in line 46) with the date, the 21st day of the month Mârgasira of the year 33. Lines 46-50 contain, as already stated, four of the usual benedictive and imprecatory verses. And these are followed (in lines 50-52) by another verse which will he translated below, according to which the king had appointed, as dutaka of this grant, his own son, the Yuvarája, the illustrious Rajyapala. The year 33 of the date must of course be referred to the king's reign, which I agree with Sir A. Cunningham in assigning to about the end of the 9th century A. D.
Of the localities mentioned in this inscription Mudgagiri and Srinagara have already by Sir Charles Wilkins been identified with the modern Mungir and Patnâ respectively. The Krimila vishaya and the village of Meshika I am unable to identify.
TEXT.5
First Side. 1 Om svasti | Siddharthasya? para[rtha)-susthira. 2 matol saumârgam-abhyasyat asosiddhis-siddhim-a3 nattarâm=bhagavatas tasya prajâ su kriyat | yasetraidbatuka sat[t]va-siddhi-padavire
atyugra-viry-dayâj-jitvå nirvșiti. 4 m-âsasáda sugatah sarvvârtha-bhūmiśvaraḥ 11 Saubhågyano-dadhad-atulam briyas=
sapatnya Gopalaḥ patir=abhavad-vasu
• See above, p. 99. • Expressed by a symbol.
& From the lithograph in Asiatic Researches, Vol. I, p. 123. * Metre, Bárdulavikridita,
• Metre, Praharshiņi.
