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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA BANGAON PLATE OF VIGRAHAPALA III ; REGNAL YEAR 17 (1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND Sometimes about the beginning of 1951, Pandit Vishṇulāl Śāstrī, a Research Scholar attached to the History Department of the University of Patna, kindly informed me that he had seen a copper-plate inscription at the village of Bangāon (P. O. Bariahi, Sub-district Saharsa) in the Bhāgalpur District of Bihār and that Pandit Chhēdī Jhā, President of the Chhēdnārāyaṇ Club at Bangāon, and formerly President of the Bhāgalpur District Congress Committee, might be approached for further information about the inscription. I at once wrote to Pandit Chhēdī Jhā, requesting him to send me a pencil rubbing of the epigraph so as to enable me to have a rough idea of its importance. Pandit Jhā kindly complied with my request and, on an examination of the rubbings sent to me, I found that the plate was issued by king Vigrahapāla III of the celebrated Pāla dynasty of Bengal and Bihar. I was then eager to have the plate on a temporary loan for a careful examination of the inscription, and Pandit Jhā was good enough to send it to me about the beginning of June 1951. I am grateful to him for this act of kindness as well as for the following information regarding the findspot and discovery of the inscription.
The owner of the plate is Pandit Ghughur Jhā, teacher of the Kalabati High English School, Bangāon. The village is an old one, situated on the bank of the Dhēmurā, a tributary of the Kōsī. To the west of the rivulet, there stands Māhishmatī, the siddha-pīṭha of the goddess Tārā and the native place of Maṇḍanamiśra, famous in the Śaṅkarāchārya legends. To the north-west lies Kandaha where there is a temple of the Sun-god, said to be founded by a king named Bhavāditya, and to the north there the Bāṇēśvara Śiva-liṅga, installed, according to tradition, by the demon king Bāṇa. To the west of the village is a Gaḍh-Ḍīh where some gold coins of the Mughal times _________________________________________________
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