South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

No. 18.- ALAS PLATES OF THE YUVARAJA GOVINDA II.; SAKA-SAMVAT 692.

BY DEVADATTA RAMAKRISHNA BHANDARKAR, M.A.

The copper-plates which bear the subjoined grant were found in the village of Alâs in the Kurundwâḍ State, Bombay Presidency, while an old earth-buttress was being excavated. The Senior Chief of Kurundwâḍ, to whom the village belongs, sent the plates to my father, Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar, who made them over to me for publication.

The plates and three in number, each measuring about 9½″ long by 5¼″ broad at the ends and somewhat less in the middle. The edges are fashioned slightly thicker so as to serve as rims for the protection of the inscription. The grant is engraved on the inner sides of the first and third plates and on both sides of the second plate. They are strung together by a circular ring of about 3¼″ in diameter and of about ⅜″ in thickness, passing through holes on the left sides of the plates. The ends of the ring are joined together by means of a large knob bearing a round seal, which measures 1½″ in diameter and has, in relief on a countersunk surface, an image of Garuḍa above a floral device, seated with the palms of his hands joined close to his breast and with his wings raised.─ The engraving is fairly deep, but not well executed. The letters ka and ma have been most indifferently incised. A few other letters, again, have unusual shapes and consequently are scarcely legible.─ The characters are of the southern type which came into vogue at the time of the later Chalukyas of Bâdâmi. For kha two forms are used, one in line 2 and the other in ll. 7 and 44. The letter la has been written in three different ways, in ll. 1, 9 and 32. The sign denoting the medial ṛi is invariably reversed in the case of kṛi. And lastly, the side- stroke towards the left used to signify ê is very often attached to the bottom, and not to the top, of the letter, e.g. in ll. 11 and 24.─ The language is Sanskṛit throughout. The grant commences with the usual word svasti.

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Then follows the curt line sa vô=vyâd=mahâ-Vishṇuḥ, and not the verse sa vô=vyâd=Vêdhasâ dhâma, etc., which we find at the beginning of almost all the Râshṭrakûṭa grants. Then nearly 20 lines are in verse, and the rest is in prose, excluding the benedictive and imprecatory verses at the end. Most of the verses are found in the Sâmângaḍ plates and in the Gujarât Râshṭrakûṭa grants, but all of them occur only in the Paiṭhaṇ charter Gôvinda III.─ As regards orthography, it is worthy of note (1) that the rules of saṁdhi are not unfrequently disregarded ; (2) that there is an indifference about the doubling of consonants in conjunction with a preceding r. Thus the consonant is doubled in śarvvarishu (l. 2), sarvv-ârtti- nirmmathanê (l. 20), etc., but not in gôtramaṇir=babhûva (l. 5 f.) etc. ; (3) that there is a tendency to the substitution of ḷa for la, e.g. in sakaḷa (l. 22) and Mâṇâvaḷôka (l. 27) ; (4) that the final m of a word has been twice changed to ñ before cha of the following word, in ll. 16 and 38 ; and (5) that the visarga followed by śa, sha or sa is almost invariably changed to that letter, e.g. in bhûpaś=śaśâṁkaº (l. 2), vash=shaṭº (l. 29), and yas=sahasâ (l. 12).

This grant was made by Gôvindarâja (II.).─ the son of Kṛishṇarâja (I.) (vv. 7, 8) of the Râshṭrakûṭa family (v. 3), surnamed Śubhatuṅga (v. 9), Akâlavarsha (v. 10) and Śrîpṛithivîvallabha (l. 20 f.). Gôvindarâja was Yuvarâja or crown-prince at the time (l. 24). He had the special biruda of Prabhûtavarsha and Vikramâvalôka (l. 23 f.). Of the time of Kṛishṇa I. we have no record, and this is the first hitherto discovered that refers itself to his reign. The charter was issued by Gôvindarâja from his camp located near the confluence of the Kṛishṇaverṇâ and the Musi (l. 26), after he had humbled the lord of Vêṅgi. It is dated, in words, in the six-hundred-and-ninety-second year of the Śaka era, on the seventh tithi of the bright half of Âshâḍha, Saumya being the Jovian year (ll. 29-31), i.e. in A.D. 769. The grant was made, we are told, at the request of one Vijayâditya, also styled Mâṇâvaḷôka Ratnavarsha, son of Dantivarman and grandson of Dhruvarâja (ll. 26-28). The grantee was a Brâhmaṇa of the name of Jaggu, son of Śrîdhara and grandson of Kêśava, of the Bhâradvâja gôtra (l. 31 f.).