South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

40 Dâṇâlavaḥ mâhakâshapaṭala^[1] śrî-Nṛi^[2] | mâ(ma)hâsandhivigrahi(hî) śrî(śry)- Ugrâditya[ḥ*] || mâpratira^[3] śri-P[r]ahâsaḥ [||*]
41 ^[4]Vila-grâmâ^[5] chat[v]âr[ô?] bhâgâ[ḥ*] | tan-maddhê(dhyê) Dhavalêṇa vrâ(brâ)hmaṇânâ[dêsha ?]^[6] bhâga[ḥ*] saṅkrântyâ[ṁ*] hast-ôdakêna dataṁ^[7] [||*]
42 ^[8]U[tta]ra-parvvata-śikhara sâddhi tivaḍisîgâḍi pôchâḍigâḍi hôṇḍimasigagâḍi sâddhî ajhêraṭa-
43 [ga]kagâḍi sâddhi Hôṇḍala-grâma sâddhi Khaîrapaṭa-grâma sâddhi cha[tu]- śim-ôpalakshita^[9] [||*] Utkâṁṇṇa^[10] Sambhakêna [||*]

B.─UNDATED GRANT OF DAṆḌÎMAHÂDÊVÎ.

This is another single copper-plate which measures 10¼ʺ broad by from 8½ʺ to 8¾ʺ high and is inscribed on both sides. On to its proper right is soldered a circular seal, 2½ʺ in diameter, in the same manner as in the grant A. This seal bears in relief on a countersunk surface, across the centre, the legend śrîmad-Daṇḍîmahâdêvî, in the characters of inscription ;^[11] 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 tail, and on each side of the bull what may be either an elephant-goad or a lampstand ; and below the legend, two straight lines over an expanded lotus flower the stalk of which rises out of margin of the seal.─ The writing is well preserved. The size of the letters is between ¼ and 5/16ʺ. The characters furnish another specimen of the northern alphabet peculiar to Eastern India ; they closely resemble those of the Orissa (?) plates of Vidyâdharabhañja, Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. LVI. Part I. Plate ix. The language of the inscription is Sanskṛit. Lines 1 to (the middle of) 20 are substantially identical with lines 1 to (the middle of) 21 of the grant A. The remainder of the text, which contains the formal part of the grant, is in prose, except that it includes a benedictive and imprecatory verse in lines 35-37. In respect of orthography, what strikes one most is the promiscuous employment of the three sibilants : s is often used for ś, and ś nearly as often for s (e.g. in śalila, l. 33, and śakalam, l. 36) ; sh for ś in shâsana-darshanâd=, l. 34 ; ś for sh in puruśai (for purushaiḥ), l. 37 ; and s for sh in manusya-, l. 36. The consonant b is throughout denoted by the sign for v, and medial û by the sign for u. Besides it may be noted that t is used for d in bhumichchhitr-, l. 29, and Autalya-, l. 39 ; and that upêjushi, l. 14, is written for upêyushi ; -âpivirdhayê, l. 33, for -âbhivṛiddhayê ;^[12] and udârhita, l. 36, for udâhṛita. In general, the formal part of this grant is less faulty than that of the grant A ; its phraseology is about the same.

This is another inscription of the Paramabhaṭṭârikâ Mahârâjâdhirâja-Paramêśvarî Daṇḍîmahâdêvî (l. 21), the names of whose ancestors are given exactly as in the grant A. From ‘ the camp of victory ’ at Guhêśvarapâṭaka (l. 3) this queen issues the following order to the

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^[1] Read mahâkshapaṭalikaḥ.
^[2] Here part of the name (perhaps siṁhaḥ) has been omitted.
^[3] Read mahâpratihâraḥ (?) śrî-.
^[4] The reading of the name here may be either Vila- or Vêla- ; compare above, l. 29, where the name apparently is written Villa-.
^[5] Read -grâmasya.
^[6] Read ºṇânâm=êka-(?).
^[7] Read dattaḥ.
^[8] The passage which begins here I do not understand. It apparently gives the boundaries of the village, but is not in Sanskṛit. The word sâddhi (or sâddhî), which occurs in it five times, is written in another (unpublished) Gañjâm grant both śândhi and sândhi ; compare sîmâ-sandhayaḥ above, Vol. III. p. 223, l. 16.
^[9] Read chatuḥsîm-ôpalakshitaḥ ; compare above, Vol. IV. p. 200, l. 13.
^[10] Read utkîrṇṇaṁ. (The Gañjâm grant mentioned above, note 8, has the extraordinary word udagirîtam for utkîrṇam).
^[11] According to Mr. Sewell’s informant the legend is “ Śrî Mahâ Sômanâthasvâmi in Telugu characters.”
This statement is purely imaginary.
^[12] In line 30 this word is written correctly.