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JULY, 1896.]
PANDUKESVAR PLATE OF LALITASURADEVA.
177
PANDUKESVAR PLATE OF LALITASURADEVA. BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN.
HIS plate is preserved in the temple of Yoga-badari at Pandukêsvar, in the Garhwal of the
of the inscription which it contains was published, in 1875, by Mr. E. T. Atkinson, B. C. S., in a collection of inscriptions from the temples of Kumaun and Garhwâl, translated by a Calcutta Pandit, and circulated with the object of endeavouring to identify the localities and personages mentioned in them. And the text of the inscription was afterwards edited, with a good photolithograph, by the late Dr. Rajendralâl Mitra,3 in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1877, p. 71 ff. I now re-edit the inscription from the published photolithograph.
The plate is a single one, inscribed on one side only. It is said to measure 24" broad by 16" high, not including a handle-like projection, said to be 5" high, on the proper right side. In the middle of the projection is let in a lead seal, 3" in diameter, which projects about " above the front and "above the back of the plate. This seal has, on a countersunk surface, the figure of a bull couchant, facing the proper left, and beneath it a legend in three lines the text of which will be given below. The projection, besides, contains the word śri, which is engraved on the proper left of the seal, opposite to the head of the bull. The engraving apparently is very deep and most carefully executed, and the writing, which runs across the breadth of the plate, is in a perfect state of preservation. The size of the letters must be between and ". The characters, which in line 23 include the ordinary numeral figures for 1, 2, and 3, belong to the northern class of alphabets. They are of the same type as those of the Aphsad inscription of Adityasêna, and closely resemble those of the Dêô-Baranârk inscription of Jivitagupta II. That they have to be assigned to comparatively early times is shown by the circumstance that such letters as p, m, y, and s throughout are open at the top, by the forms of the initial á and the medial diphthongs, by the use of the final form of t (in samvat, 1. 23, and vasét, 1. 27), and by the fact that in the conjunct ry the sign for r is every where written on, not above, the line. They are undoubtedly more antique than the characters of the two British Museum inscriptions (from Northern India) of the [Vikrama] years 981 and 983,7 published ante, Vol. XIII. p. 250 ff., and even than those of an unpublished British Museum inscription of the second year of the reign of Mahendrapâladêva (of Kanauj); and they may, in my opinion, be assigned with confidence to about the middle or the second half of the 9th century A. D. — In respect of orthography, it will suffice to state that the letter b everywhere is denoted by the sign for v, that t throughout is doubled in conjunction with a following r, and that the sign of the upadhmaniya is employed in Dhurjjatéḥ prasádát, 1. 3, and the letter n instead of anusvára in anyáns=cha, 1. 15. Except for nine benedictive and imprecatory verses in lines 24-30, the whole text is in prose, which is not wanting in the quality of ôjas. It is remarkable for the long list of officials enumerated in lines 11-16, and contains several technical terms (pointed out in
1 See Dr. Führer's Monumental Antiquities and Insriptions in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, p. 46. 2 I owe a copy of this probably very rare publication to Dr. Hoernle. It is a great pity that the texts of these inscriptions have not yet been made generally accessible, So far as I can see from the rough translations, the inscriptions are really of some importance, and they apparently contain sufficient data to enable one to calculate the times of the kings of whom they treat.
s His text has been reprinted by Mr. Atkinson in his Gazetteer of the North-Western Provinces, Vol. XI. p. 473 ff., and in the Prachinalékhamala of the Karyamála, Vol. I. p. 216 ff.
The shape of the plate is similar to that of the Gorakhpur plate of Jayaditya; see ante, Vol. XXI. p. 169. * See Dr. Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, Plates xxviii. and xxix. B.
The ordinary superscript sign of é is used 60 times, the more antique form of 17 times; the corresponding figures for & are 44 and 14; for ai, 2 and 10; and for au, 9 and 4.
7 Not 781 and 789.
In this respect the inscription no doubt resembles the copper-plate inscriptions of the Påla kings, but the agreement with the Deô-Barapark inscription of Jivitagupta II. (Gupta Inscriptions, p. 216) is almost closer. That inscription (in line 9) also seems to have pramatri-sarabhanga, like the Mungir plate of Devapala, but e. g. in line 10 it certainly reads kisóravadavajómahishyadhikrita, differing in this from the Pâla plates, and agreeing exactly with the present inscription, line 14.
