North Indian Inscriptions

ACHYUTAPURAM PLATES OF INDRAVARMAN.

No. 20.─ ACHYUTAPURAM PLATES OF INDRAVARMAN.

BY E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.

......The copper-plates which bear the subjoined inscription, belong to Mallapragada Surya. Prakasa Rao of Achyutapuram, near Mukhaliṅgam, in the Gañjâm district. They were brought to my notice by Mr. G. V. Ramamurti of Parlâ-Kimeḍi, and forwarded to me at my request by the Collector of Gañjâm. The owner has consented to let me deposit the plates in the Madras Museum. The plates are three in number and measure 5⅞ by 2 inches. Their rims are not raised. The second plate bears writing on both sides. The plates are in a state of nearly perfect preservation. The ring on which they were strung, and which had not yet been cut when I received the plates, is about 5/16’’ thick and about 3¼’’ in diameter. The small oval seal, in the lower part of which the ends of the ring are secured, measures about ¾’’ by ⅝’’. It bears, on a slightly countersunk surface, some indistinct emblem or emblems. The weight of the three plates is 15¼ oz. and that of the ring and seal 6 oz.,― total 1 lb 5¼ oz.

......The alphabet of the inscription resembles the alphabets of the two published grants of Indravarman II.¹ The language is nearly correct Sanskṛit. With the exception of three imprecatory verses (lines 19-22) and one concluding verse (l. 23 f.), the inscription is written in prose.

......The plates record a gift of land, which was made at Kaliṅganagara (l. 1) by one of the kings of Kaliṅga (l. 4) of the Gâṅga family (l. 6),― the Mahârâja Indravarman (l. 8), alias Râjasiṁha (l. 24), during (the sun’s) progress to the north (udag-ayana, l. 13), i.e. during the half-year between the winter and summer solstices. Near the end of the inscription, there is a second date which is probably intended for the day on which the edict was engrossed and issued.² This second date is “the eighty-seventh year (in words and numerical symbols) of the reign, on the new-moon of Chaitra” (l. 23). Dr. Fleet has published another copper-plate grant of the Mahârâja Indravarman, alias Râjasiṁha,³ which is dated in “the ninety-first year (in words and numerical symbols) of the reign.” The proximity of this date (91) to that of the subjoined inscription (87) suggests that both inscriptions belong to one and the same king, Indravarman I. alias Râjasiṁha. This view is further corroborated by the concluding verse of the present grant, which is identical with that of the other grant, and shows that both inscriptions were drafted by the same person, viz. Vinayachandra, the son of Bhânuchandra. Besides, the introductory passage which celebrates the virtues of the king, is literally the same in both inscriptions⁴ and styles the king “the establisher of the spotless family of the Gâṅgas,”─ an epithet which, as noticed by Dr. Fleet, does not occur in other grants of the Gâṅgas of Kaliṅga.

......The object of the grant was a portion of a field in the village of Siddhârthaka in the district of Varâhavartanî⁵ (l. 8), which was given to a Brâhmaṇa of the Chhandôga school (l. 12). The field was situated near a tank named Râjataṭâka (ll. 10 and 15), i.e. “the King’s Tank,” the water of which the donee was permitted to utilise for irrigation purpose (l. 17 f.).
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......¹ See the photo-lithographs, Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 120 f. and p. 122 f.
......² Similar double dates occur in other Gâṅga grants ; Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. pp. 120 and 122 f., and Vol. XVIII. p. 144.
......³ Ind. Ant. Vol. XVI. pp. 131 ff.
......⁴ The only exception to this is omission of the word sukha after sarva-rtu in line 1 of the Achyutapuram plates.
......⁵ The same district is referred to in two other Gâṅga grants ; Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. pp. 120 and 273.