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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
SANTIRAGRAMA GRANT OF DANDIMAHADEVI (1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND In May 1949, I received for examination a copper-plate grant from Mr. K. C. Panigrahi, Curator, Orissa Provincial Museum, Bhubaneswar. It was originally in the possession of a gentleman of a village in the Angul Sub-division of the Cuttack District. Mr. Rādhāmōhana Garanāyaka of Angul received the plate from him and sent it to the Curator of the Orissa Provincial Museum. The inscribed plate, which was covered with a coating of greenish verdigris, was properly cleaned at the office of the Government Epigraphist for India, Ootacamund, and several sets of excellent impressions were prepared.[1] The plate was then returned to the Orissa Provincial Museum where it now lies. I thank Mr. Panigrahi for his kindness in allowing me to publish the inscription in the Epigraphia Indica.[2] This is a single copper plate measuring 13·8″ by 10″ with a circular projection at the centre of the proper right end, to which the seal, 4·3″ in diameter, is soldered. The seal is designed in the form of an expanded lotus, on the circular pericarpial portion of which are carved, on counter-sunk surface, the emblems of the sun, the moon and a conch-shell and a seated bull facing proper right. In the lower part of this circular space there is also an emblem of an expanded lotus. In the space between the bull and the lotus is the legend śrīmad-Daṇḍimahādēvyāḥ. The plate is written on both sides, the obverse containing nineteen lines of writing and the reverse eighteen lines. The average size of the aksharas is ·4″ in height and ·3″ in breadth. The aksharas of the concluding two lines are, however, smaller in size. The incision is deep and the letters are carefully and beautifully cut. The state of preservation of the writing is exceptionally satisfactory. The plate weighs 325 ½ tolas.
The characters belong to the eastern variety of the North Indian alphabet and closely resemble those of other records of the Bhauma-Kara family of Orissa, especially the Gañjām[3] and Bāṇpur[4] plates of the same queen who issued the charter under discussion. While editing the Gañjām plates, Kielhorn opined about half a century ago that the writing “could hardly be older than the 13th century A.D”.[5] With the progress of our knowledge in the ancient history of Orissa, this view has now rightly been discarded. There is hardly any doubt that the imperial Bhauma-Kara dynasty of Orissa flourished earlier than the Sōmavaṁśī king Uddyōtakēsarin (c. 1060-85 A. C.)[6] and the Greater Gaṅga king Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga (1078-1147 A.C.).[7] This is not only suggested by the known facts of Orissan history but also by the use of numerical symbols instead of figures in writing the date of the charter in question. This old system of writing numbers is not usually found in inscription of a date later than the tenth century.[8] On palaeographical grounds, the present inscription may be assigned to a period about the tenth century A.C. The most interesting point in regard to its palaeography is the confusion between the medial signs of u and ū which is characteristic not only of the epigraph under notice (cf. More than twenty cases of medial ū wrongly _________________________________________________
[1] This is C. P. No. 63 of the A. R. I. E. for 1949-50. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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