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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS DĀMŌDARPUR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF BUDHAGUPTA : YEAR 163 TRANSLATION (Lines 1-4) On the twenty-eighth day of Mārgaśīrsha in the year 159, during the reign of Māhārājādhirāja Budhagupta, the stone pillar is set up by Dāmasvāminī (who is) the daughter of Māravisha (?) an inhabitant of Pārvarika and is also the daughter of Sābhāṭi (?). No. 38 : PLATE XXXVIII DĀMŌDARPUR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF BUDHAGUPTA : THE This inscription also was discovered in the village of Dāmōdarpur, about eight miles west of the Police Station Phulbāri in Dinajpur District, West Bengal, in the same circumstances as Nos. 22 and 24, above. It is now deposited, along with them, in the Museum of the Varēndra Research Society, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. And it was edited by Radhagovinda Basak in the Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, pp. 134 ff., and Plate iii a and b.
The Plate is one number, but is inscribed on both sides, the first containing eight and the second five lines of writing as in Nos. 22 and 24, above. It measures 7¾" by 3¼". The edges thereof have not been raised into rims for the protection of the writing. The plate is slightly thicker than those described in Nos. 22 and 24. The letters are well executed and well preserved except in some places where they have been eaten up by verdigris. It is not known whether there was any seal attached to it. The weight of the plate is 13 tolas. The characters belong, generally speaking, to the eastern variety of the Gupta alphabet as remarked about the plate described in No. 22. The other palaeographical points that deserve notice are: (1) the occurrence of the initial vowel ā in ākshēptā, line 13; (2) the peculiar form of the medial ā after ṇ, dh, and b, indicated by a hook attached to the bottom on the proper left of these letters, as in =brāhmaṇ-āryyān=, line 4, =avadhāritaṁ, line 6, -bāhy-āprada-, line 5, and so forth; and (3) the joining of t or n to the following p and s as in tat-pāda-, line 1, vṛindakāt=sa-, line 2 and -āryyān=prativāsayituṁ, line 4. The characters also include, in line 1, forms of the numerical symbols for 3 and 10. The language is Sanskrit; and the inscription is in prose throughout excepting the three benedictory and imprecatory verses in lines 11-13. In respect of orthography we have to note (1) that the visarga followed by s has been changed to that letter, as in mātā-pitrōs=sva-puṇya-, line 4 and so on; (2) that the letters g, t, dh, m, y, v and sh are doubled in conjunction with a following r, as in svarggē, line 13, karttum=,line 6, saṁvyavahāribhir= ddharmmam=, line 11, =brāhmaṇ-āryyān=, line 4, -pūrvvēṇa, line 9, maharshshibhiḥ, line 11, and so forth; (3) that the final m of a word, instead of being changed to an anusvāra, is joined to the following p as in sva-dattām=para-, line 11; and (4) that the letter b is distinguished from v and is denoted by its own sign, e.g., brāmaṇ-ādhyaksha-, line 3, brāhmaṇ-āryyān=, line 4, and so on. The inscription refers itself to the reign of Paramadaivata Paramabhaṭṭāraka Mahārājādhirāja Budhagupta, that is, Budhagupta of the Imperial Gupta dynasty. Its date, in numerical symbols, seems to be the year one hundred and sixtythree (481-82 A.D.) on the thirteenth day of Āshāḍha (June-July). Under Budhagupta was Mahārāja Brahmadatta as Head (Uparika) of the Puṇḍravardhana province (bhukti). The plate then refers to the Ashṭakula Board of Palāśavṛindaka, headed by the Mahattara Officer and associated with the Viśvāsa (Accountant) Officer and husbandmen (Kuṭumbins) and speaks of a communication issued by them to the husbandmen of the Chaṇḍa village, in regard to an applicaton made by Nābhaka, a native of that village, for the purchase of some waste land for settling down certain Brāhmaṇas. And we are told that, with the approval of the record-keeper Patradāsa,
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