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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
PONNUTURU PLATES OF GANGA SAMANTAVARMAN, The characters are of the early southern type and belong to the Kaliṅga variety of the Telugu-Kannaḍa alphabet. They closely resemble those of the Urlām[1] and Narsiṅgapalli[2] plates of Hastivarman, and Achyutāpuram plates[3] of Indravarman. The difference between cha and va is very little. The letter rṇṇa looks like ṇṇā, the superscript r being indicated by a serif (ll. 3, 27). The medial ī is represented by an inner circle within the sign for medial i (ll. 7. 17). The signs for the medial vowels ai (ll. 11, 17) and au (in ll. 1, 4, and 13) are particularly noteworthy. Numerical symbols for 4, 8, 20, and 60 are used in the date portion (l.29). Final t can be seen in l.24. The language of the grant is Sanskrit. With the exception of five customary verses in the end, the inscription is in prose. As to orthography, there is little no note. A consonant before or after r is often doubled. The inscription pertains to Sāmantavarman (l. 29), or Mahāsāmantavarman (l. 7), of the Gāṅga dynasty of Kaliṅga. It is issued from Saumyavana, the abode of the goddess of Victory (Jayaśrī).[4] Its object is to record the grant of the village of Pratishṭhāpura, situated in the district of Dāgha-pañchālī, on the occasion of the Uttarāyaṇa, to four Brāhmaṇas, Yajñaśarman, Gauriśarman, Agniśarman and Umaśarman by name, of the Vatsa gōtra, who were students of the Vājasanēyī śākhā, for the increase of the merit of the king and of his parents. It is stated that the king made this grant at the request of his (?) uncle, Ādityarāja (mām=Ādityarāja-). The date of this grant is given both in words and in figures. In words, it is the sixty-fourth year of the victorious reign, the thirteenth day of the bright fortnight of Pushya. In figures, it is the year 64, Pushya-dina 28.
The writer and engraver of the grant was Vinayachandra, son of Bhānuchandra, the very person who wrote and engraved the grants of the Early Gāṅga kings of Kaliṅga till the 91st year of the Gāṅga era. One Ādityavarman acted as dūtaka, here called rājājñāprada. After the Jirjiṅgi plates of Indravarman,[5] the present is the earliest of the Early Gāṅga grants that have so far come to light. Like the other grants, it also begins with the praśasti or eulogy of the Early Gāṅga kings Kaliṅga. Its praśasti, however, differs from that given both in the Jirjiṅgi plates of Indravarman and in the grants of Hastivarman. This preamble attained a sort of standardisation only from the time of Hastivarman.[6]His successors took the eulogy given in his grants as model in drafting their records. Another fact worth mentioning in this record is the title Trikaliṅgādhipati. It is significant that, with the exception of Indravarman of the Jirjiṅgi plates and Sāmantavarman of the present record, no other Early Gāṅga king had that title. The years mentioned in this grant and in the Jirjingi plates refer in all probability to the Gāṅga era. If this conjecture is correct, then, considering the nearness of time, it may be supposed that Indravarman and Sāmantavarman stand as father and son, or as brothers, in relation to each other. This grant makes one point very clear, and that is about the system of reckoning of lunar months then in vogue in Kaliṅga The 13th day of the bright half of Pushya in the given year was equal to the 28th day of Pushya. It can, therefore, be safely concluded that the Pūrṇimānta system of reckoning was in vogue in Kaliṅga during the rule of the Early Gāṅgas. This is confirmed by some other early grants also. The Urlām plates of Hastivarman record a grant made on the eighth tithi of the dark fortnight of the month of Kārttika, which is equated with the eighth ______________________________
[1] Above, Vol. XVII, pp. 330 ff. and plate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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