|
The Indian Analyst
|
North Indian Inscriptions |
RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK. to the Sambalpur District, Central Provinces. I re-edit it from the original plates, which I examined in 1884 ; they were then in the collection of the Bengal Asiatic Society, having been presented by Captain M. M. Bowie, Deputy Commissioner of Sambalpur. ......The plates are three in number, each measuring about 9⅝” by 5” at the ends and somewhat less in the middle. They are quite smooth ; the edges of them having been neither fashioned thicker, nor raised into rims. The inscription, however, is in a state of perfect preservation throughout.— The ring, on which the plates are strung, is about ½" thick, and 4½” in diameter. It had not been cut when the grant came under my notice. The seal, in which the ends of the ring are secured, is circular, about 1¾” in diameter. In relief on a countersunk surface it shews, very indistinctly,— in the centre, some seated figure, perhaps of the goddess Lakshmî with her elephants, as on the seal of C.; and, on each side, apparently a chaurî : if there was ever a legend below. this, it is now quite illegible ; but it seems more likely that there was only a floral device.— The weight of the three plates is 7 lbs. 4 oz., and of the ring and seal, 1 lb. 4 oz. ; total, 8 lbs. 8 oz.— The characters are Nâgarî, of the northern class. They include forms of the decimal figures 6 and 8, in line 41. The virâma does not occur in this record ; final forms occur, of t in kaṭakât, line 1, vasêt, line 27, dadyât, line 29, and samvat, l. 41,— of n in âdîn and sarvvân, line 6,— and of m, resembling an anusvâra with a virâma below it, in ºârtham, line 19. The average size of the letters is about 5/16”. The engraving is good and deep ; but, the plates being substantial, the letters do not show through on the reverse sides. The interiors of the letters shew, as usual, marks of the working of the engraver’s tool. The way in which the surface of the plates, being evidently rather soft, was pressed up inside of and around the letters in the process of engraving, has rendered it impossible to obtain impressions giving an absolutely clear lithograph throughout ; especially in Plates ii. a and b, and iii. a.— The language is Sanskṛit. And, except for the customary benedictive and imprecatory verse in lines 24 to 39 and one ordinary verse at the end, the whole record is in prose. The rules of saṁdhi are neglected in several places. In respect of orthography, the only points that call for special notice are (1) the use of the guttural nasal ṅ, instead of the anusvâra, in vaṅśa and vaṅśi, line 45 ; and (2) the use of v for b, throughout. There are many cases in which the long vowel û has been given by mistake for the short u ; but this seems a matter of carelessness, rather than of orthography.
......The inscription is one of Mahâ-Bhavagupta I., otherwise called Janamêjaya. The charter contained in it was issued from the city of Kaṭaka,1 which is evidently the modern Kaṭak or ‘Cuttack,’ the chief town of the Cuttack District in Orissa, while the king was in residence at Mûrasîma, which seems to have been some place on the outskirts of the city.2 And the object of it was to register a grant, to some Brâhmaṇs, of a village named Vakaveḍḍâ, in the Oṅgâtaṭa vishaya or district on the bank of the river Oṅgâ. The charter was written by a clerk in the office of a son of the Mahâsaṁdhivigrahin Mallâdhâradatta, on Âshâḍha śukla 8 in the sixth year of the reign of Janamêjaya, i.e. of Mahâ-Bhavagupṭa I. And the record ends with a verse in praise of the king under the name of Janamêjaya. TEXT.3 1 Ôm4 Svasti Mûrasîma-samâvâsita[ḥ*] śrîmatô vijaya-Kaṭakât paramabhaṭṭâraka-
mahârâjâdhi-
......1 The words vijaya-kaṭakât, line 1, might be rendered by simply “from the victorious town or camp.” But
the locality from which these records come, seems to indicate plainly that kaṭaka is here the place-name.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > |
|
>
|