North Indian Inscriptions

RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.

Mahattama, it was received by Puṇḍarîkâksha :¹ also that it was engraved by Mâdhava, son of Vâsu.

E.— Kaṭak Copper-Plate Grant of the ninth year of Mahâ-Śivagupta.

......This record was originally brought to notice in 1877, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. XLVI. Part I. p. 149 ff., by babu Rangalala Banerjea, according to whose account the plates were found among the official records at Kaṭak. I re-edit it from the lithograph, published with the Babu’s article on it, which, though it is on a very small scale, and though it is plainly not a purely mechanical reproduction,² suffices to make the text clear all through, except for some four or five letters in line 36.

......The plates are three in numbers, each measuring about 8” by 6¼” : it would appear that the first plate is engraved on one side only, and the third on both sides.— The ring, on which the plates were strung, with any seal that there may have been on it, it reported to have been lost.— The characters are Nâgarî, of the northern class ; they are very similar to the characters of B., C., and D., and were possibly written, for reproduction by the engraver, by the same person who wrote those records. They include forms of the decimal figures 1 to 7 in lines 7 to 20, and of the figure 9 in line 65 ; and also forms of the numerical symbols for 3 and 10 in line 65.³ The avagraha occurs twice ; in yathâsmâbhir, line 29, where it is not really required, and in yasôbhivṛiddhayê, line 38, where the use of it is quite correct. The virâma occurs with t, in ârât, line 11, tasmât and purât, line 12, and anurôdhât, line 42. Final forms occur,— of n, in yasmin, line 11, śrîmân, line 14, sarvvân, line 29, and prêyân, line 61, and of m, (1) resembling an anusvâra with a virâma below it, in vibhûshitam, line 16, and aṅgulam, line 51, and (2) in a elaborate shape, in ârtham, lines 37, 38, and probably in bhavatâm, line 29.— The language is Sanskṛit. And, in addition to the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses in lines 42 to 59, there are ordinary verses in lines 1 to 20 and 60 to 62.— 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, before ś, in dhvaṅśana, by mistake for dhvaṁsana, line 8 ; (2) the use of v for b, throughout ; and (3) the use of j for y in jayâti, line 64.

......The inscription is one of Mahâ-Śivagupta, otherwise called Yayâti. The charter contained in it was issued from a town named Vinîtapura, on the bank of the river Mahânadî. And the object of it was to register a grant, to a Brâhmaṇ, of a village named Chândagrâma in the Maraḍa vishaya or district in Dakshiṇa-Kôsalâ.⁴ At the end there is recorded the date,— apparently for the writing of the charter,— of Jyêshṭha śukla 13 in the ninth year of the reign of Yayâti, i.e. of Mahâ-Śivagupta.

TEXT.⁵

First Plate.

1 Ôm⁶ [||*] Svasti⁷ |⁸ prêma-niruddha-mugdha-manasôḥ spârîbhavach-chakshushôr=yûnôr=yya-
2 tra vichitra-nirbhara-rata-krîḍ¬â-kramaṁ tanvatôḥ vichchhinnô=pi kṛit-âtimâtra-pulakai-
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......¹ Evidently as Dûtaka, for transmission of the charter to the grantee.
......² The perfectly plain ground between the letters proves this.
......³ The form of 10 used here is practically given in col. 6 of Paṅdit Bhagawanlal Indraji’s table in the Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 44 ; but he took it (see id. p. 46, and note §) from a symbol (Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. XL. Part I. p. 166, last line of the text, and Plate) which must really mean 100 or 200. The form of 3 is not given in his table ; it has possibly been somewhat added to in preparing the lithograph of this charter.
......⁴ See page 352 below, note 11.
......⁵ From the published lithograph.
......⁶ Represented by a plain symbol.
......⁷ Metre : Śardûlavikrîḍita ; and in the next two verses.
......⁸ This mark of punctuation is unnecessary.