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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA of the Gaṅga kings from the Gaṅga year 195 onwards.[1] The earlier grants of these kings are written in the beautiful box-headed characters of the Central Indian alphabet, well-known from the inscriptions of the Vākāṭakas, the Kings of Śarabhapura, the Early Sōmavaṁśīs, and others. The alphabet seems to have been changed towards the end of the reign of the Gaṅga king Dēvēndravarman I. The earlier records of his reign such as the Chicacole plates of the Gaṅga year 183, the Parlakimedi plates of the Gaṅga year 184 and the Tekkali plates of the Gaṅga year 192 are written in the box-headed-characters. In this Siddhantam plates of the Gaṅga year 195, we find the new script for the first time. The box-heads of letters yield place to straight horizontal strokes. There is a greater mixture of northern and southern forms and the letters become more cursive. This later Kaliṅga alphabet has been used in the present grant.[2] In the present grant as in other inscriptions written in this later Kaliṅga script, we find the same letters expressed by varying signs. Attention may, for instance, be drawn to the following :─ Initial u appears with a horizontal stroke at the top in udaka-, l. 18 and without it in utkirṇṇa, l. 30 ; superscript ṅ has different forms used side by side in the words –kalaṅkō and Gaṅg-āmala-, in l. 6 ; ch has a rectangle on the left in Mahēndr-āchala-, l. 2, while it closely resembles v in other places as in cha, l. 19 ; j appears with a curve turned to the left at the top in Bhāradvāja-, l. 17, and without it in jaya-, l. 7 ; the superscript ñ resembles ṇ as in mañjarī-, l. 8 ; ṭ has a notch at the top in –kuṭumvina-, l. 14, but not in –bhaṭṭa-, l. 18 ; t has generally no loop, but the looped form also occurs sporadically as in –ātmanaḥ, l. 16 and Aditya-, l. 18 ; dh has a notch in the curve on the left in some cases (cf. dhvasta-, l. 9), but not in others (cf. dhārō-, l. 6); the two curves of bh generally appear separated as in Bhāradvāja-, l. 17, but they are joined in some places as in puny-ābhivṛidhayē, l. 16 ; y has a notch at the bottom of the left limb as in Gāṅgēya-, ll. 28-29, but is without it in some other cases as in vijaya-, ll. 1-2 ; in its subscript form the letter generally appears without the notch as in pratishṭhitasya, l. 3, but see its shape in punyābhivṛidhayē, ll. 16-17 ; similarly v also has a notch in –bhuvana-, l. 3, but is without it in viditam= and vō, both in l. 14 ; the superscript ś is cursive in śri-, l. 11 ; and the final t is shown with a curve at the bottom in yāvat, l. 20. The language is Sanskrit, and the entire record is in prose with the exception of two benedictive and imprecatory verses in ll. 26-28. The grant is somewhat carelessly written.
The plates refer themselves to the reign of the Gaṅga king, Mahārāja Dēvēndravarman, the son of Mahārājādhirāja Rājēndravarman. They were issued from Kaliṅganagara and record his grant of the village Musunika[3] situated near Sidhathā[4] in the territorial division of Varāhavartanī, on the occasion of a solar eclipse. The grant is dated at the end in the year 306 (expressed in words) of the Gāṅgēya kingdom, i.e., of the Gaṅga era. While stating the boundaries of the donated village the following neighbouring villages are mentioned, viz., Mukurumbaka, Aralaka, Yavayaṭika and Yāmivāṭaka. The donee was the Brāhmaṇa ___________________________________________________
[1] Bühler says that the change in the characters occurred about the Gn. year 183 (Indian Palaeography,
English tr., p. 69), but in the Parlakimedi and Tekkali plates issued later in the Gn. years 184 and 192 the box-headed characters have been used.
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