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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INDIA OFFICE PLATE OF VIJAYARAJADEVA. ......This is a single plate which measures about 10” broad by 5⅛” high, and is engraved on one side only. It contains ten lines of writing written across the breadth of it, and another line, which merely contains the name of the donor, on the proper right margin. The writing is in a perfect state of preservation. The size of the letters in the body of the inscription is between 5/16” and ⅜, and of those on the right margin, about 9/16”. The characters are Nâgarî, as written in Orissa or neighbouring parts of Eastern India probably in the 11th or 12th century AD. The language is very incorrect Sanskṛit prose, greatly influences are altogether Prâkṛit or vernacular of the author. In some places the case terminations are altogether omitted ; in others we have wrong cases, false genders, and inappropriate or incorrect verbal derivatives. The influence of the Prâkṛit is shown by the substitution of single for conjunct consonants (as in Vigahapâla for Vigraḥapâla, ll. 2 and 7, sadâthiyâ for sadâsthityâ, ll. 4 and 5, and sahasta, l. 5), the use of the lingual for the dental nasal (as in ṇa for na, l. 3, and kuṭṭumvikâṇâṁ for ºkânâṁ, l. 7), the substitution of s for ś and sh (as in sêsaṁ for śêshaṁ, l. 8), and the omission of medial y and final consonants (as in- vidhêâṇâṁ for –vidhêyânâṁ, l. 9, and kasyachi for ºchit, ll. 5 and 7).1 That the author’s vernacular was closely related to, or was a kind of, Mâgadhî Prâkṛit, appears to be particularly proved by the occurrence of the shm and shy in chatuspada, l. 6, tusmâ (for yushmat-), l. 4, and nirvvahisyati, l. 9 ; and (if my interpretation of the text be right) by the Nom. sing. masc. yê in line 3.2 In respect of orthography it may be noted that t is everywhere doubled before r (as in –puttra, l. 2) ; that b is written by a sign of its own in kuṭṭuṁbikâ, l. 3, and bal-âdhikṛitêna, l. 4, but by the sign for v in kuṭṭumvikâṇâṁ, l. 6 ; and that the writer throughout has written ṭṭ instead of the single ṭ (as in -kaṭṭakê, l. 1). The style and phraseology of the inscription are very peculiar, and I know of no other inscription which is similar to it in this respect. A territorial term which I have not met with elsewhere, is paribhôga in line 3, used apparently in the sense of bhukti or bhôga, ‘a district.’
......The inscription, described in line 2 as a prasâda-paṭṭaka or ‘document of favour,’3 is one of a Parambhaṭṭâraka Mahârâdhirâja Paramêśvara Vijayarâjadêva, and records a grant of land and other property in the Kêsarikôṭṭa paribhôga and the grant of a village named Pôtâ, in favour of some people of the Palha clan or caste. There is nothing to show to what dynasty Vijayarâjadêva belonged, or to determine the time when he lived ; and all that can be said, is that, judging by the writing, the inscription must be referred to Orissa or some part of India adjoining it, and to about the 11th or 12th century A.D. ; and that, if the word kaṭṭaka (for kaṭaka) in line 1 should have to be taken as a proper name, which probably is really the case,4 Vijayarâjadêva, when these grants were made, resided at Cuttack, now the capital city of the province of Orissa. One point in the inscription which I am unable to explain satisfactorily, suggestion which I can offer, is that Vijayarâjadêva was a minor when the first grant was made, and that the government was then carried on in his name by these ladies. ......The district of Kêsarikôṭṭa and the village of Pôtâ I am unable to identify.
......1 Perhaps I should also mention here that we find times, at the end of a word, â instead of aṁ or am ; in
line 4 –târakâ, nirvvahamânâ, and pradattâ, and in line 5 paripaṁthaniyâ and bhôktavyâ.
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