North Indian Inscriptions

RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.

bhavatâm, line 8, phalam, line 18, ânandyam, line 19, and several other words. 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 some of the letters shew the usual marks of the working of the engraver’s tool. And the way in which the soft copper was pressed up in the process of engraving, has rendered the lithograph rather indistinct in some places ; especially in plate ii. b.— The language is Sanskṛit. There are the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses in lines 17 to 84 ; and three ordinary verses in lines 37-42 and 48, 49.— In respect of orthography, the only points that call for special notice are (1) the use of the guttural nasal, instead of the anusvâra, in triṅśattimê, line 44 ; and (2) the use of v for b throughout.

......The inscription, which is styled in line 46, a triphalî-tâmra-śâsana or one copper charter of a connected set of three, the others being C. and D., is one of Mahâ-Bhavagupta I., who in line 48 is called Kôsal-êndra, or “lord of Kôsala.” The charter contained in it was issued from the city of Kaṭaka, while the king was in residence at the ârâma or pleasure-garden. And the object of it was to register the grant, to a Brâhmaṇ, of two village named Raṇḍâ and Alâṇalâ in the Pôvâ vishaya in Kôsala. The charter was written by a clerk attached to the office of the Mahâsaṁdhivigrahin Malladatta, on Mârgaśîrsha śukla 13 in the thirty-first year of the reign of Mahâ-Bhavagupta I.

C.

......This record is now brought to notice for the first time, I believe. I edit it from the original plates, which I obtained for examination from Mr. Beames in 1883. I have no precise information as to where they were found ; but it appears to have been somewhere at, or closely in the neighbourhood of, Kaṭak.

......The plates are three in number, each measuring about 9” by 5¾”. 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, except in a few places in the last lines of plate ii. b.— The ring, on which the plates are strung, is about ⅝” thick and 4⅛” 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 slightly countersunk surface, it has the goddess Lakshmî, seated on a throne, with, on each side of her, an elephant, with its trunk lifted up over her head ; and, below this, a legend, of which the first letter and the last four are rather indistinct, but which is plainly śrî-Mahâ-Bhavaguptarâjadêva. The weight of the three plates is 4 lbs. 4 oz., and of the ring and seal 1 lb. 15½ oz. ; total 6 lbs. 3½ oz.— The characters are of precisely the same type with those of B. ; the virâma, and the final forms of t, n, and m, are used almost exactly as in B. 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 some of them shew the usual marks of the working of the engraver’s tool.— There are the same peculiarities of orthography as in B.

D.

......This record was originally brought to notice in 1882, in the Jour. Beng. As. Sec. Vol. LI. Part I. Proceedings, p. 9. ff., by Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, according to whose account the plates were found at Kaṭak. I notice 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 Mr. Winterscale.

......The plates are three in number, each measuring about 8⅝” by 5⅝”. The edges of them were fashioned slightly thicker than the inscribed portions, so as to serve as rims to protect the