South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

others, he is burnt in hell for sixty-thousand years. He who preserves this (gift), shares the reward of it. And it has been said : The earth has been possessed by many kings, commencing with Sagara ; to whomsoever at any time the land belongs, to him, for the time being, belongs the reward (of a grant).

(L. 18.) This charter was written by the private secretary Dâmôdaradatta.

B.-BANNAHAḶḶI PLATES OF KṚISHṆAVARMAN II.
The seventh year.

These plates were discovered about 1888, while digging at Bannahaḷḷi in the Chikmagaḷûr tâluka of the Kaḍûr district of Mysore, and are now in the possession of the Pâṭil of Haḷêbîḍ. They were first publicly noticed by Mr. Rice in his Inscription at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, Introduction, p. 15 ; and an account of their contents is given by Dr. Fleet in his Dynasties, second ed., p. 290.

These are four copper-plates, the first and last of which are inscribed on one side only, and each of which measures about 8¾ʺ broad by 2¾ʺ high. They are quite smooth, the edges being neither fashioned thicker nor raised into rims. The engraving is good, but not very deep. The letters do not shew through on the reverse sides of the plates ; they shew marks of the working of the engraver’s tool, throughout.─ On one of the edges, the plates are numbered, by four notches^[1] on plates i., three on plate ii., two on plate iii., and one on plate iv. (i.e. in exactly the reverse order) ; and near these notches there is also a single notch on each plate : whether this marking is ancient or recent, is not apparent.─ The plates are strung on a ring, which had been cut already when the grant came into Dr. Fleet’s hands ; it is about ¼ʺ thick, and 2¾ʺ in diameter. The ends of the ring are secured in a seal which is roughly circular, about 1½ʺ in diameter. About a quarter of an inch from the edge of it, there is a raised rim ; and inside this, in relief on a countersunk surface, there is a lion, standing to the proper right.^[2] The weight of the four plates is 1 lb. 9¾ oz., and of the ring and seal, 7 oz. ; total, 2 lbs. ¾ oz.─ The writing is well preserved. The size of the letters is between 3/16ʺ and 5/16ʺ.

>

The characters belong to the southern alphabet. With those of the Halsî plates of the fifth year of the Mahârâja Harivarman (Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 31, Plate) they have this in common that the letter t, both when used singly and in conjuncts, is mostly denoted by the sign with the loop ; but otherwise they quite differ from those of other Kadamba inscriptions, and might, in their general appearance, rather be compared with the characters of the Chikkulla plates of Vikramêndravarman II. (above, Vol. IV. p. 196, Plate). From the photo-lithograph it well be seen that the letters are frequently finished off, or embellished, with small circles. The sva of svasti in line 1 has two such circles at the ends of the lines on the proper right ; the sti of the same word two at the bottom of the superscript i, and one at the end of the proper right stroke of s ; the ya of the following word jayaty= has two at the top ; etc. I believe, there can be no doubt that by these circles the writer has tried to imitate the little ‘ boxes ’ of the characters of such inscriptions as the Uruvupalli plates of the Pallava Yuvamahârâja Vishṇugôpavarman (Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 51, Plates), and has done this in a not very intelligent manner. A certain influence of the characters of Pallava inscriptions may perhaps be distinctly traced also in the use of the looped t already mentioned ; and in the fact that in the akshara ṇâ the vowel â is here denoted by a separate downward stroke, while in other Kadamba inscriptions it is nearly always written, in the ordinary way, by bending back the last downward stroke of ṇ, in an upward direction ; compare the aksharas ṇâṁ in line 4 of the present inscription, ṇô in line

____________________________________________
^[1] For other plates which are marked in the same manner, see Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 197.
^[2] I owe the above information to Dr. Fleet, according to whom the later Kâdambas, both of Hângal and of Goa, also had the siṁha-lâñchhana or lion-crest ; see his Dynasties, second ed., pp. 560 and 566. Mr. Rice finds the lion also on the seal of the Hiṭṇahebbâgilu plates ; see Ep. Carn. Vol. IV. Introduction, p. 2.