South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

may be classed together with those of e.g. the Naḍagâm (in Gañjâm) plates of Vajrahasta of Śaka-Saṁvat 979 (No. 357 of my List of Inscr. of North. India), the Bâmanghâtî (in Orissa) plate of Raṇabhañja (ibid. No. 655), the Orissa (?) plates of Vidyâdharabhañja (ibid. No. 658), the Paṭṇâ Kaṭak and Kudopali plates of Mahâbhavagupta I. and II. (ibid. Nos. 659, 660, 664 and 665), the Buguḍa (in Gañjâm) plates of Mâdhavavarman (ibid. No. 673), the Gañjâm plates of Pṛithivivarman (ibid. No. 672), and even the Assam plates of Ratnapâlavarman, Indrapâlavarman and Balavarman (ibid. Nos. 711-714). To prove this with full details would lead me too far here, but I may invite the reader’s attention at least to the forms of the aksharas ṭa and ṭṭa used in the present inscription (e.g. in the word khêṭa in line 30, and in Ummaṭṭa- at the end of line 5), the type of which is equally found in all the eastern inscriptions enumerated,^[1] while it is absent from the records of other parts of Northern India. Of peculiar forms of letters on the first side of the plate I would point out that of the letter n (e.g. in nivâsi-, l. 3, and ânandaṅ=, l. 4), which has found no place yet in our palæographic Tables ; it also occurs in the Naḍagâm plates of Vajrahasta (above. Vol. IV. p. 189, and Plate, e.g. in bhuvana-vinuta-, l. 1). I may mention besides that in the word charitârtha- in line 12 the r of the akshara rtha clearly is written on, not above, the line. On the second side attention may be drawn, amongst other things, to the form of the letter h (e.g. in mahiyasî mahîm=ahi- in line 20), which also is absent from our palæographic Tables, but occurs e.g. in the Orissa (?) plates of Vidyâdharabhañja (Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. LVI. Part I. Plate ix.) ; to the form of the subscript û, e.g. in chi[hna]-bhûtâ, l. 21, and vabhûva, l. 22, which is the form of û constantly used in the Naḍagâm plates ; to the medical â in pathârha (for yathârhaṁ), l. 28, in the ṇâ of Dâṇâlavaḥ, l. 40,^[2] and in the grâ of -grâmâ, l. 41 ; to the fact that the letters t, r and j occasionally are turned the wrong way, as in chiram= and sutâ tasyâ in line 20, and ºdhirâja-, l. 23 ; to the final t in samvat, l. 35, and śrîmat, l. 38 ; to the occurrence of the rare letter jh in ajhêraṭa- at the end of line 42 ;^[3] and to the apparently very modern forms─ peculiar, so far as I can see, to Orissa─ of the letters p, ph and sh in the corrupt passage mâ bhud= aphasanâ saḥ para-datishu in line 37. Nor would I omit to mention that in line 26 the first akshara of the word which I have transcribed by [sth?]ânântari[k]ân= is denoted by a strange sign which bears no resemblance at all to the ordinary sign for sth.^[4] But what in this inscription─ a record which from its general appearance could hardly pretend to any great antiquity ─ seems to me most remarkable, is the employment of numerical symbls^[5] in the date of it (in lines 35 and 36), which I have transcribed by samvat 100 80 Mârgaśîrsha-vadi 5 (?). In this respect, I can compare with the present grant only the Bâmanghâtî (in Orissa) plate of Raṇabhañja, in which the year of the date is similarly denoted by numerical symbols (for 200, 80 and 8).[6] It is noteworthy that both these grants come from the same part of India, where

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^[1] In some of these inscriptions it is difficult to distinguish between the signs for ṭ and ṭ­ṭ, and there are some in which no difference at all is made between the two.
^[2] The same sign for ṇâ is used in line 39, in line word transcribed by [pû ?]ṇâ[kô]. The medial â is occasionally written in the same manner in the Kudopali plates (above, Vol. IV. p. 258, Plate), in the aksharas gâ, ṅgâ, ṭṭâ, dhâ and śâ (and also in ṇô).
^[3] The sign for jh, here employed, resembles the sign for the same letter used in the Assam plates of Vallabhadêva, above, Vol. V. p. 185, l. 41, in the phrase sa-jhâṭa-viṭapa. A similar sign for jh also occurs in line 11 of the Kudopali plates, above, Vol. IV. p. 258, where the actual reading, as I now see, is sa-jhaṭa-viṭap-âranya (for sa-jhâṭa-viṭap-âraṇyaḥ), not sa-[vâ ?]ṭṭa-viṭṭap-âranya.
^[4] The sign employed by the writer is perhaps really meant for thâ, not sthâ.
^[5] Above, Vol. IV. p. 195, note 4, I have given the latest known copper-plate inscriptions with numerical symbols, the time of which can be fixed with certainty, and have stated that they are all anterior to A.D. 800. The only stone inscriptions with numerical symbols which are later than A.D. 800, so far as I know, are Nos. 501, 545 and 560 of my List of Inscr. of North. India.
^[6] See Jour. Beng. As Soc. Vol. XL. Part I. Plate ii. last line ; and Prof. Bühler’s Ind. Palæographic, Plate IX. col. xviii., where (probably only in consequence of the numerical symbols) Raṇabhañja’s plate is assigned to the 9th century A.D.