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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA preservation of the plate is fairly satisfactory. Six lines of writing at the top on the obverse and five lines at the top on the reverse have a gap in the middle, owing to the space occupied by the lower part of the seal. In point of palaeography, language and orthography, the inscription under discussion resembles very closely the only other copper-plate charter of king Mahīpāla I so far known to the students of history. This is the Bāṇgarh plate finally edited by the late Mr. R. D. Banerji in the pages of this journal, Vol. XIV, pp. 326 ff., with plates. The introductory verses at the beginning of the record, the description of the place of issue, the list of officials and others to whom the royal order was addressed, the list of the privileges to be enjoyed by the donee and the imprecatory and benedictory verses about the end are practically the same in both the charters. Indeed most of these are common to all charters of the Pāla family. It is only the actual grant that is different in the Bāṇgarh record and the charter under review. The present epigraph, like some other Pāla records, usually indicates superscript r by a horizontal short stroke below the top mātrā of the consonant towards the left, sometimes making the sign almost undistinguishable. The date of the record, given in one figure in line 49, is the year 5 (of the reign of Mahīpāla I), the 26th day of the month of Śrāvaṇa. Line 46 speaks of the grant being made by the king on the occasion of a ceremonial bath taken by him in the waters of the Ganges on the day of the vishuvat-saṅkrānti (i.e., vishuva-saṁkrānti)which indicates the sun’s equinoctial passage into Mēsha on the 1st day of solar Vaiśākha or into Siṁha on the 1st day of solar Kārttika. In the present case, it is possible to think that the grant had been made on the 1st of Vaiśākha, although the charter was issued a few months later on the 26th of Śrāvaṇa. A ceremonial bath and offering of gifts on the occasion of the vishuva-saṅkrānti are both enjoined by the Hindu scriptures.[1] The action of the Pāla king, who was a Buddhist, as recorded in the document, no doubt points to the fact, often noted, that there was little difference between the life of a lay follower of Buddhism and that of an ordinary Brahmanical Hindu in the age of the Pālas at least in Eastern India. As we have elsewhere observed, when the Brahmanical and Buddhist philosophers were busy in refuting one another’s views, the life of the lay man appears to have been marked by absolute religious toleration and the Buddhist laity was gradually nearing absorption into Brahmanical society.[2]
The charter begins with the akshara ni (an abbreviation of the word nibaddha meaning ‘registered’) which is also found at the end of line 1 as in the Bāṇgarh plate of the same king and in many other records. This kind of double endorsement by the king himself and by one of his officials is also known from other records from Bengal such as those of the Sēnas.[3] The first ni is followed by the usual symbol for siddham and the introductory word svasti. Next come 12 verses in lines 1-23 forming the introduction of the charter. It is well-known that the fashion of quoting _________________________________________________
[1] Cf. Brahma Purāṇa quoted in the Śabdakalpadruma, s.v. saṅkrānti : Nityaṁ dvayōr=ayanayōr=nityaṁ
vishuvatōr=dvayōḥ | chandr-ārkayōr=grahaṇayōr=vyatīpātēshu parvasu || Ahō-rātr-ōshitaḥ snānaṁ śrāddhaṁ dānaṁ
tathā japam | yaḥ karōti prasann-ātmā tasya syād=akshayañ=cha tat || | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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