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INDIAN ANTIQUARY, VOL. XXXIII, 1904; APPENDIX.
[§ 37, G.
As regards the technical preparation, the oldest tämrasasana known, the Sohgaura copper-plate (see above, page 32), has been cast in a mould of sand, into which the letters and the emblems above them had been previously scratched with a stilus or a pointed piece of wood. Hence both the letters and the emblems appear on the plate in relievo. All other copper-plates have been fashioned with the hammer, and many among them show distinct traces of the blows. Their thickness and size vary very considerably. Some are very thin sheets, which could be bent double and weigh only a few ounces; others are exceedingly massive and are eight or nine pounds in weight or even heavier. Their size is partly determined by the nature of the writing material commonly used in the districts where they were issued, and partly by the extent of the document to be engraved, the size of the clerk's writing, and so forth. The smiths always imitated the originals given them. If these were written on palm-leaves, the plates were made narrow and long. If the material was birch-bark, the plates became much broader, often almost square. Of the first description are all the copper-plates from Southern India, with the exception of those of the Yadavas of Vijayanagara, which imitate stone stelae." To the second class belong all the Sasanas issued further north, with the exception of the Taxila plate, which, as stated already, is the size of a palm-leaf. A comparison of the numerous plates of the Valabhi kings shows very clearly how their size gradually grows with the increasing length of the Prasasti,
If, as is mostly the case, several plates were required for one document, they were usually connected by copper rings passed through round holes in the plates. The single ring is usually found in Sasanas from Southern India, and then the hole is usually made in the left side of the plate. If there are two rings, the holes go through the lower part of the first plate, the upper part of the second, and so on alternately. The rings correspond to the threads which keep the palm-leaves together, and they make of many tämrasāsanas small volumes,3 which can be opened quite conveniently. The lines run always, except in the Vijayanagara plates, [91] parallel to the broadest side of the plate. The letters bave mostly been incised with a chisel, rarely with a graver (compare above, page 19). In order to protect the writing, the rims of the plates are usually thickened, and slightly raised, and the first side of the first plate, as well as the second side of the last, is left blank. The copper seals attached to the plates seem to have been cast, and their inscriptions and emblems are raised on a counter. sunk surface. According to Bana, the state seal of king Harea was made of gold.
Various copper statues show votive inscriptions on their bases. A single inscription on iron, that on the iron pillar of Meharauli, near Delhi, has become known, The British Museum possesses a Buddhist MS. on tin."
G.
Stone and brick.
Stones of the most various kinds, rough and artificially smoothed blocks of basalt or trap, as well as artistically carved columns of sandstone, or even prisms of crystal, have been since the most ancient times the most common materials for making documents, as Aśoka expresses himself, cirathitika, "such as to endure for a long time." And it is indifferent whether the documents are official or private, whether they contain royal proclamations, treaties between kings, or agreements between private individuals, grants and donations or poetical effusions. There are even some instances of the incision of larger literary works; large fragments of
1 The Taxila plate weighs 8 ounces and was found bent double; the Alina plates of Siladitya VI. of Valabhi weigh together 17 pounds, 84 ounces, see F.GI (CII. 3), 172. But there are still heavier plates, see B.ESIP. 92, where however the historical notes require correction.
B.ESIP. 92; compare the facsimiles at EI. 3, 26, 38, &o.
The Kasakudi grant (8th century) is written on eleven plates, the Hirahadagalli grant (4th century), EI. 1, 1 ff., on eight.
See FLEET, GI (CII. 3), 68, note 6. F.GI (CII. 3), 139.
* Hargacarita, 227 (Nirnayasagar Press ed.).
See the list, J. Pali T. Soc. 1883, 134 ff.
