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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
DOMMARA-NANDYALA PLATES OF PUNYAKUMARA ; (1 Plate) H. K. NARASIMHASWAMI, OOTACAMUND During my tour in the Jammalamadugu taluk of the Cuddapah District in the year 1940-41, while I was engaged in copying some stone inscriptions in the village Dommara-Nandyāla, some villagers brought the set of copper plates under review to me. [1] They said that several years ago one of their kinsmen, while ploughing a field struck against a sealed earthen pot which contained these plates preserved in paddy-husk. [2] It is remarkable that to this day the plates are quite well-preserved. The owner of the plates was sorely disappointed when he learnt that the strange record which he thought preserved the secrets of some hidden treasure was merely a document referring to some gift-lands. As the plates were useless to him he readily consented to make a gift of them to the Government Epigraphist’s office where they are now preserved. I edit the inscription on the plates with the kind permission of the Government Epigraphist for India.
The set consists of three rectangular copper-plates, each measuring 7″ by 2¾″ and strung on to a circular copper ring of about 2″ in diameter and made of copper wire ⅜″ thick with its ends soldered into a circular seal which depicts on its flat surface, in high relief, a rampant lion with a prominent mane and raised left paw. The rims of the plates are slightly raised so as to protect the writing they bear. The plates along with the ring and the seal weigh 70½ tolas. For their neat execution with regard to the inscription as well as the seal, these plates show a marked contrast to the Mālēpāḍu plates.[3] The initial ā is used only once in Ātrēya in l. 17. The initial vowel i occurs in Iruga-śarmaº in l. 15. The forms of k and r, though narrow and elongated, have developed complete loops and may be favourably compared with their forms in the Kendūr and the Vakkalēri plates of Kīrttivarman II[4]. The slight contrast that these forms bear to their earlier forms with loops still incomplete as in the Jejūri plates of Vinayāditya[5] and their shorter, rounder and therefore more developed forms as in the Eḍēru plates of Vijayāditya II[6], may be noted. The letter b which occurs twice in l.8 is noteworthy for, it shows the open form which, as will be alluded to in the sequel, gives an indication of the period to which the charter may be assigned. In the Mālēpāḍu record itself there are both the closed as well as the open forms of this letter─ the b in bādhā being of the open type and that in the superscript of abbhirº, of the closed type, both occurring in l.23 of the text. [7] The letter ḷ is used thrice in the inscription, once in the expression Chōḷa-Mahārāja[8] (l. 7), and twice in the words Chōḷa and Kēraḷa (l. 8). The final form of t and n may be noted in lines 1 and 12 respectively. They are, as usual, cut in a diminutive form. As regards orthography, the doubling of consonants either before or after a rēpha, usual in records of this period, is not observed. Such minor grammatical discrepancies as (i) the wrong _______________________________________________
[1] C. P. No. 35 of 1940-41. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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