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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA PETTASARA GRANT OF NETTABHANJA (1 Plate) C. C. DAS GUPTA, CALCUTTA This set of copper plates was recently acquired for the Orissa Museum at Bhubanesvar by its Curator. I edit it with the kind permission of the Government Epigraphist for India who supplied me with an excellent set of impressions.[1] The set consists of three copper-plates, each measuring 7·7″X4·5″. The plates are strung together on a ring with a seal which is worn out. Together with the ring, they weigh 138 talas, the ring alone weighing 22 tolas. The first and third plates are engraved on one side only, the second on both sides. The inscription consists of 35 lines, the first plate containing 8 lines and the other three inscribed sides of the plates 9 lines each. The characters used in this inscription belong to the East Indian Nāgarī type and may be assigned to the 9th or 10th century A.C. The language of the record is Sanskrit and the composition is in verse and prose. As regards palaeography, language and orthography, the inscription closely resembles other Orissan records of the period in question.
Nēṭṭabhañja mentioned in this inscription is the same as Nētṛibhañja noted in three Ganjam grants[2] on account of the following reasons. First, the script used in all these four inscriptions is exactly the same. Secondly, the drafts of all these records are of the same nature. Thirdly, all were issued from Vañjulvaka. Fourthly, the officers named in this inscription as serving Nēṭṭabhañja are found mentioned only in the inscriptions of Nētṛibhañja as serving that ruler. For example, the officers Kakkāka, Durgadēva and Vāchchika mentioned in this inscription are also known from other inscriptions of Nētṛibhañja[3]. Lastly, the ruler Nēṭṭabhañja of this record and Nētṛibhañja of the other inscriptions have the common secondary name Kalyāṇakalaśa.[4] These inscriptions together offer the following genealogical table : Śilābhañja Śatrubhañja Raṇabhañja Nētṛibhañja There is another ruler with almost the same name, i.e., Nēṭṭabhañja[5] ; but there is no doubt that he is an altogether different monarch though belonging to the same dynasy.[6] There are also two other rulers named Nēṭṭabhañja I and Nēṭṭabhañja II who belonged to an altogether different dynasty as their genealogy is entirely different.[7] _______________________________________________
[1] [This inscription was published with plates by Pandit Satyanarayan Rajaguru in the Journal of the Kalinga
Historical Research Society, Vol. I, No. 4 (March 1947), pp. 285 ff., under the title “ The Kshatrivarpur Copperplate Grant of Neṭṭabhañjadeva alias Kalyāṇakalaśa (Samvat 59).” According to him, the plates were discovered
by the villagers of Kshatrivarapur in the Ghumsar Subdivision of the Ganjam District, Orissa, while digging the
earth for the construction of a school building and he received them for examination in October 1946 through
Mr. Banchhanidhi Patnaik of Gobara and Mr. Nabakisor Das of Cuttack.─D.C.S.]
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