South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

No. 13.-TWO GRANTS OF DANDIMAHADEVI.
BY F. KIELHORN, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E. GÖTTINGEN.

The two grants of which at Dr. Hultzsch’s request I give an account here from excellent impressions supplied to him by Mr. Venkayya, were preserved in the office of the Collector of Gañjâm and will be deposited in the Madras Museum. There is no information as to where or by whom they were discovered. They have been briefly noticed already in Mr. Sewell’s Lists of Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 32 f., Nos. 216 and 217 ;^[5] and I have for years been in possession of rubbings of them which formerly belonged to the late Sir A. Cunningham. The grants record donations by a lady named Daṇḍîmahâdêvî, whose ancestors are enumerated in both, in almost identical verses.

A.─ DAṆḌÎMAHÂDÊVÎ’S GRANT OF THE YEAR 180.

This is a single copper-plate which measures about 1ʹ ¼ʺ broad by 10⅛ʺ high, and is inscribed on both sides. On to its proper right is soldered a seal, half of which sticks to the plate, while the other half projects beyond it. This seal rests on an expanded lotus flower the petals of which enclose it ; it is circular and measures 2¾ʺ in diameter. It bears in relief on a countersunk surface, across the centre, the legend śrîmad-Daṇḍimahadêvî, in characters resembling those on the first side of the plate ; above the legend, a couchant bull facing to the proper right, with the sun and the moon’s crescent above its hump and a conch-shell above its hips ; and below the legend, two straight lines over an expanded lotus flower the stalk of which rises out of the margin of the seal.─ The writing is well preserved. The size of the letters is between ⅜ and 7/16ʺ on the first side of the plate, and between about ¼ and ⅜ʺ on the second side. Both the general style of writing and forms of individual letters shew that the two sides of the plate were written by different persons. The writer of the first side, who affects a monumental style of writing, apparently has taken some pride in his work and has done it fairly well ; the writer of the second side, who writes in a current hand, has performed his task in a very slovenly manner and committed many blunders, some of which I am unable to correct. The characters on both sides belong to the northern part of Eastern India. They

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^[5] The prince ‘ Indulâlâ’ of Mr. Sewell’s account to whom is ascribed the feat of having rescued his brother’s throne, owes his existence to the epithet vyûḍha-bhôgîndra-lîlaḥ in verse 6 of the two grants. Most of the princes who are really mentioned in the grants have been omitted by Mr. Sewell’s informant.