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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 33─ HOWRAGHAT PLATES OF BALAVARMAN III OF KAMARUPA, YEAR 5 (2 Plates) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND About the middle of September 1956, I received a circular issued by the Director of Historical and Antiquarian Studies in Assam on the discovery of a new copper-plate grant of king Balavarman of the Mlēchchha or Sālastambha dynasty of Kāmarūpa or Prāgjyōtisha. The inscription was originally in the possession of Mr. Prakash Chandra Acharya of Uttar Barbil, Howraghat, Mikir Hills, from whom it was secured by Mr. Ganesh Chandra Phukan, Deputy Commissioner, United Mikir and North Cachar Hills, through a gentleman named M. M. Chakravarti. The Department of Historical and antiquarian Studies of the Government of Assam obtained the plates through the courtesy of Mr. Rupnath Brahma, one of the Ministers of the Assam Cabinet. It was stated in the circular that Dr. Pratap Chandra Chaudhury, Deputy Director of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, was engaged in deciphering the inscription. Dr. Chaudhury has since published the inscription in the Asam Sāhitya Sabhā Patrikā, Vol. XV, No. 3, pp. 187-94. On receipt of the circular, I contracted Dr. Chaudhury and tried to secure the plates on a few weeks’ loan for study. unfortunately the attempt was a failure. My endeavour to secure a set of inked impressions of the inscription also ended equally in a failure. But, thanks to Dr. Chaudhury, in March 1957, I received from him a set of photographs of the inscribed faces of the plates together with one showing the set of the plates hanging from the ring bearing the seal. The photographs were taken after having rubbed chalk over the letters of the writing on the plates. In December 1957. I visited Gauhati. Dr. Chaudhury then kindly allowed me to prepare inked impressions of the plates.
The set consists of three copper plates each measuring about 10 in length and 6½″ in height. They are strung on a copper ring, the ends of which are soldered beneath a bronze seal, its countersunk surface being divided into two parts by a thick demarcating line. The upper one of these two parts bears the figure of an elephant to front, while the following legend in three lines occupies the space beneath the line of demarcation :
1 Svasti śrīmān=Prāgjyōtish-ādhip-ā[nva]-
The seal closely resembles that attached to the Nowgong plates[1] of the same ruler who issued the charter under study. Similar seals are also found with the copper-plate grants of other rulers of the Kāmarūpa or Prāgjyōtisha country. Of the three plates of the set, the second bears writing on both the obverse and the reverse, the other two plates being inscribed only on the inner side. Of the four inscribed faces, the first three contain fourteen lines of writing each while the fourth contains only twelve lines. The engraving of the letters is neat and careful ; but the preservation of the writing is not quite satisfactory. Some letters here and there are damaged while most letters in the last line on the inner side of plate I are more or less completely rubbed off. _______________________________________________ [1] JASB, Vol. LXVI, Part I, 1897, pp. 285 ff., Plates XXXV-XXXVII. The seal is illustrated] in Plate XXXVII. See also P. N. Bhattacharya, Kāmarāpaśāsamāvalī, pp. 71 ff., containing illustration of the inscription on Plate I only. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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