South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

WADGAON PLATES OF VAKATAKA PRAVARASENA II

The copper-plates are four in number, of which the first and the last are inscribed on the inner side only and the other two on both the sides. They measure 6.5″ long and 3.5″broad and weigh 97 tolas. They were held together by a ring, about 3 tolas in weight, passing through a roundish hole l.3″ from the middle of the left side of each plate. It must have carried the usual Vākāṭaka seal sliding on it, but this is not forthcoming now. There are 42 lines of writing in all, which are evenly distributed on the six inscribed faces of the four plates. The writing is in a state of good preservation throughout. In a few cases the engraver has corrected his mistakes of omission and commission, see, e.g.,aṁsa-bhāra-, l.4, saty-ārjjava-, l. 9, śri-samudayasya, l. 13, etc. ; but there are many more which are left uncorrected. In the right hand lower corner of the first side of the second plate, he has incised the syllables Māradē (dā)[sē]-, which were inadvertently omitted in l. 42. In l. 21 several letters were beaten in and in their place the syllables vishuva-vāchanaka were incised. This correction or tampering, whatever is might be, was apparently done in the Vākāṭaka age, for the substituted aksharas are of the same type as the rest of the record.

The characters are of the box-headed variety as in most other inscriptions of the Vākāṭakas. The noteworthy peculiarities are the cursive form of the medial ū in sūnōḥ twice in l. 4 ; the bipartite au in dauhitrasya, l. 7 ; the medial ṛi of kṛi which is formed not by the usual curling curve, but by the addition of a curve turned downwards on the left of k in kulaputr-ādhikṛitā, l. 23 and the rare medial ḷi in –kḷipt-ōpakḷiptaḥ, l. 31. The numerical symbols for 4001 occur in l. 20 and those for 2 and 3 on the second side of the second and the third plate respectively. The language is Sanskrit, and, except for two benedictive and imprecatory verses, the whole record is in prose. The orthography does not present any thing calling for special notice.

The inscription is one of the Vākāṭaka king Pravarasēna II. His genealogy is given here exactly as in his other plates, his maternal grandfather being called Dēvagupta. The object of the present inscription is to register the grant of 400 nivartanas of land which Pravarasēna II made to a Brāhmaṇa named Rudrārya who was versed in two Vēdas and belonged to the Lōhitya gōtra^[2] and the Vājasanēya śākhā. He was a resident of the village Ēkārjunaka. The land donated to him was in the village Vēlusuka which was situated in the Supratishṭha āhāra or subdivision. The village lay to the east of Gṛidhragrāma, to the south of Kadambasaraka, to the west of Nīlīgrāma and to the north of the road to Kōkilā. The plates were issued from the royal camp on the bank of the river Hiraṇyā on the tenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Jyēshṭha in the twentyfifth year, evidently of the reign of Pravarasēna II. The Sēnāpati Bāppadēva, mentioned in the last line, was probably the dūtaka. He is also mentioned in the Siwani plates of this Vākāṭaka king.^[3] The scribe was Māradāsa.^[4]

From the Paṭṭan plates published in this Journal,^[5] we already know that Pravarasēna II ruled for at least twentyseven years. The present plates being issued in his twentyfifth regnal year do not make any addition to the reign-period of the king. The done Rudrārya is styled vishuva-vāchanaka (reciter at a vishuva) which suggests that the grant was made on the occasion of a vishuva or equinox. The vishuva immediately preceding the date of the grant^[6] was the of

____________________________________

^[1][The original gives the symbols for 100 followed by 4 evidentlyin the sense of 100X4 (=400). A different set of symbols for 400 is employed in Gupta Inss., Pl. XXV, l. 78 and Pl. XXXVI(c), l. 1. Cf. the symbol for 600 where the symbol for 100 is followed by symbol for 6 ; Ojha’s Palaeography of India (1981), Pl. LXXIV.─ Ed.]

^[2] The Gōtrapravaranibandhakadamba gives Lōhita as the name of the gōtra.

^[3]C. I. I., Vol. III, p. 247.

^[4] See below, p.

^[5] Above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 81 ff.

^[6] Lines 20-21 of the present plates state that the grant was made in the twentieth year, but this is probably a mistake. The writer seems to have omitted the word pañcha before vīśatīma in l. 20. It is unlikely that the grant remained unregistered for five years.