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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE DYNASTY OF THE HARISCHANDRA NO. 31; PLATES XXIV-XXV THIS set of three copper-plates was discovered, together with two others1 in 1936, in the possession of the Shid family of Anjanēri, a village near Trimbak in the Nasik District. The inscriptions were brought to my notice by Rao Bahadur K.N. Dikshit, Director General of Archæology. The plates were kindly sent to me for examination by the Superintendent of the Archæological Survey, Western Circle, who has also supplied me with their ink impressions The plates, except the first, are inscribed on both the sides. They measure each 12.5" broad and 8" high. Their ends are slightly raised or thickened for the protection of the writing. The inscription is in a state of excellent preservation almost throughout. On the outer side of the first plate is incised an ornamental lotus-like figure with a diameter of 3.6". On the second sides of the second and third plates there appear inscribed, in the midst of letters, the small figure of a boar running to the right and the large one of a conch2 respectively. The plates are held together by two rings passing through the holes near their upper side. The ends of one of them are not soldered, while those of the other are secured into the bottom of a seal, having the shape of an inverted cone, the round surface of which, measuring 1.5" in diameter, contains in high relief, in the centre of a circle of knobs, the figure of a lion with the right front paw raised, and the tail twisted over his back. The weight of the plates together with the rings and the seal is 308 tolas. There are sixty-four lines in all, of which fourteen are inscribed on each side, except the second sides of the second and third plates which have thirteen and nine lines respectively. The size of the letters varies from. 2" to .4". The letters on the second side of the third plate which were written subsequently and by another hand, are bolder and more deeply incised than those on the other sides.
The characters belong to the western variety of the southern alphabets. The letters
are in most cases embellished with small circles as in the Bannahalli plates3 of the Kadamba
king Kŗishņavarman II. These circles appear not only at the top of letters like the boxheads in Vākāţaka inscriptions, but also at the corners and lower ends; in hā of -mahā-
pātakais=, 1.46, for instance, as many as five circles are used to embellish the akshara.
The letters in 11.56-64, however, do not show these circles, but have instead knobs at their
top as in other early inscriptions from the Nasik District. As regards individual letters
we may notice that the rare lingual dh occurs clearly in vōdhavyah, 1.48; the lingual d shows
in some places a looped curve as in the Kaira plates4 (of K.380) of Dadda II, see –maņdal-
1.5, -shaņda-, 1.19 and khaņda-, 1.32; b is round in brahmanya-, 1.12, but rectangular 1 These were the following grant of the same king and the grant (dated K.460) of the Gurjara
king Jayabhaţa III, (above, No. 22). The present plates have since been edited by Messrs. Vats and
Diskalkar in the Ep. Ind., Vol. XXV, pp. 225 f. and 292 f.
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