North Indian Inscriptions

RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.

B., C., and D.─ Kaṭak Copper-plate Grants of the thirty-first year
of Mahâ-Bhavagupta I.

......These three records form what is called in line 46 of B., line 48 of C., and line 50 of D., a triphalî-tâmra-śâsana or set of three connected charters. The object of them was to register the fact that Mahâ-Bhavagupta I. granted to a Brâhmaṇ named Sâdhâraṇa,— apparently the person who is mentioned in them as chief minister,— the village of Raṇḍâ and Alâṇḍalâ in the Pôvâ vishaya (B. lines 4, 5), Arkigrâmâ in the Tulumva khaṇḍa (C. lines 4, 5), and Tûlêṇḍâ, or perhaps Trûlêṇḍâ, in the Sandânâ vishaya (D. line 5), in the Kôsala dêśa or country (B. line 4, C. line 4, D. line 5). The charters were all written by one and the same person, Mâhûka, on Mârga śukla 13 in the thirty-first year of the reign of Mahâ-Bhavagupta I. ; and they were all engraved by one and the same person, Mâdhava. Why the grants were not all recorded in one and the same charter, is not apparent ; except on the hypothesis that, the villages conveyed by each charter being in different territorial divisions, separate deeds were required for exhibition to the different local authorities of the three divisions.

......As the plates are not all of the same size, and so the forty-nine lines of which B. consists run out into fifty-one lines in C. and fifty-three lines in D., the records do not lie uniformly on the three sets of plates. But, with the exception that, for the words Kôśa(sa)la-dêśê Pôvâ-viśa(sha)yîya-Raṇḍâ-grâmê | tathâ Alâṇḍalâ-grâmê of B. lines 4, 5, we have Kôśa(sa)la-dêśê Tulumva-khaṇḍîya-Arkigrâmâ-grâmê in C. lines 4, 5, and Kôśa(sa)la-dêśê Sandânâ-viśa(sha)yîya-Tû(? trû)lśṇḍâ-gramê in D. line 5, the texts were intended to be identical throughout, and practically are so, save for a few of the accidental slips which are always met with in records of this kind. It seems sufficient, therefore, to give the text of B. only, in full ; mentioning in the footnotes any points of interest in which the text of C. and D. agree with or differ from it. And a lithograph of B. suffices to illustrate all the three records.

B.

......This record was originally brought to notice in 1875, in the Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 55 ff., by Babu Rangalala Banerjea, according to whose account the plates were found in ploughing a field at Chaudwâr, in the opposite side of the river to Kaṭak. I re-edit it from the original plates, which I obtained for examination, in 1883, from Mr. Beames, I.C.S. (Bengal), who communicated the Babu’s paper to the journal in which it was published.

......The plates are three in number, each measuring about 9⅜” by 5⅝” at the ends and somewhat less in the middle. The edge of them were fashioned slightly thicker than the inscribed portions, so as to serve as rims to protect the writing ; and the inscription is in a state of perfect preservation throughout.— The ring, on which the plates are strung, is about ⅝” thick and 4¼” in diameter. It had not been cut 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. It is a good deal damaged ; but it shews, in relief on a slightly countersunk surface, the goddess Lakshmî, seated on a throne, with, on each side of her, an elephant, with its trunk lifted up over her head ; below this, there was some legend which is now quite illegible.— The weight of the three plates is 4 lbs. 7 oz., and of the ring and seal, 1 lb. 15 oz. ; total, 6 lbs. 6 oz.— The characters are Nâgarî, of the northern class. They include forms of the decimal figures 1 and 3, in lines 45, 46. The virâma occurs, in conjunction with the full forms of the letters to which it is attached, in kaṭakât, line 1, vrajêt, line 21, dadyât, line 22, pârtthivêndrân, lines 31, 32, and samvat, line 45 ; but the final form of n occurs in vrâhmaṇân and viśayîyân, line 5, and sarvân, line 7, and a final form of m, resembling an anusvâra with a virâma below it, in