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OCTOBER, 1896.]
THE SOHGAURA COPPER PLATE.
265
may stand for chhala(si) or for chha la(sit). As the Pali chha commonly represents an older ksha, its Sanskrit form would be *ksălam or kshăraxis. Though *kshăla is.not mentioned in our Dictionaries, the Dhậtapâtha gives the root kshal chayeand hence ®kshālam may be formed and be translate by "the collection, the accumulation," which suits very well. As the last part of the word, preceding chkala, ends in the termination ''na, it must be a plural genitive and describe the things, the accumulation of which the two storehouses required. And, as the dialect of the inscription requires la for ra, bhalalana, or with the full spelling on d'alt & na, may correspond to Sanskrit bharakánám of loads.' The bhara or bhároku is a weight equal to 20 Tulås or 2,000 Palas and nearly equal to the weight of an ox,"10 The term is still commonly used in India for loads of grass, wood, leaves and the like, with very different values, and from Prinsep's Useful Tables, p. 115 ff., it appears that the Bahar (Bhør) occurs in Java, Sumatra and other parts of the Indian Archipelago as a measure for dry goods with a value from abont 400-600 pounds. Various passages20 in literary works shew also that the Bhara was in ancient India one of the larger weights.
The eight syllables between tigh dudni and bh'alak a na may be expected to give a detailed specification of the goods to be stored. A storehouse, the filling of which was the object of an official order, can hardly have been anything else than a granary. And this conjecture is confirmed by the word atiyáyik'á'ya, which in line #follows after kay 'yati and is clearly the dative of atiyáyika21 "an urgent (matter)," found in Kalsi Ed. VI. If the storehouse is to be filled for "an argent occasion," that can only mean that it is to serve for the, in India, 80 common times of distress, when a drought causes a bad harvest. Under these circumstances the syllables mathulách a chamodarima must contain the names of various kinds of grain, fit for storage. This will actually be the case if we may transcribe them in Sanskrit by madhukolc, jájamudumba, which proceeding is not quite unwarranted as the hardening of dha and ja and the substitution of mma for mba occasionally occur in other Pali words.22 Madhuka is According to Hemachandra and the Vaijayanti, Black Panicum, lája is any kind of parched grain, ajamoda cummin or aniseed, and ámbáh, which occurs only in Vedic works, means according to Sayana on Taitt. Sari hita, I. 8, 10, 1, dlányaviseshah "some kind of grain." It in of course undeniable that an explanation, which assumes for each word a not very common phonetic change is merely tentative. I must, therefore, acknowledge that it is open to doubt, especially as the value of two signs is not certain. But I am unable to find any thing better.
The last two words of the inscription, which form a separate sentence, hardly require any remark, as no is very common in the Asoka Edicts and in Pali, and as galvituraya(si) is clearly the representative of Sanskrit grahitaryam, compare lákhápetavaya for likhápetaraya in the Rūpnâth Edict, 23
In accordance with these remarks the Sanskrit translation of the inscription is :reaffarat aeri i Hafta tra i stafa are getting 19 FYRIARRATसाम्बभारका सलं कायर्यायत पास्ययिकावामी महीतब्बम् ।। and the English: -
"The order of the great officials of Srivasti, (issued) from their camp at) Mänavani tikața :-These two storehouses with three partitions, (which are situated) even in famous Vamsagrâma require the storage of loads (bharaka) of Black Panicum, parched grain,24 carruinseeds and Amba for times of) urgent (need). One should not take any thing from the grain stored).'
10 Bérant, India, I. p. 165 (Sachau). 20 See the larger Petersburg Dict. sub voce bhdra, ". 31 In Sanskrit atyayika, urgent.
72 E. g. in upatheyya for upadheya, pithfyare for pidhlyante, suithamar for sandhamam; pacheti for prajayali, pachana for prijana, váchapeyya for rdjapeya; ammd for ambu and drammana for árambana.
26 Ind. Antiquary, Vol. XXII. p. 300. 26 Or possibly " parched Black Panioum.". #0 Or "aniseed"
