South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY GURJARAS

No. 17 ; Plate XI
KAIRA PLATES OF DADDA II (PRASANTARAGA): (KALACHURI) YEAR 385.

THIS set of two copper-plates was discovered together with the preceding one in the town of Kairā, the headquarters of the Kairā District in Gujarat, Bombay State, under circumstances already described.1 A mixed transcript of the two records was first published by Mr. J. Prinsep in the J. A. S. B., Vol. VII, pp. 908 ff. The plates were subsequently edited with facsimiles by Prof. Dowson in the J. R. A. S., Vol. I (New Series), pp. 247 ff., and finally by Dr. Fleet in the Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII, pp. 88 ff. As the original plates had been lost, Dr. Fleet’s transcript was made from the facsimiles accompanying Prof. Dowson’s article. I edit the inscription here from the same facsimiles.

From the facsimiles they appear to be two plates each being inscribed on one side and measuring 10⅛˝ by 7 ⅛˝. It is not possible to say if their ends were raised into rims for the protection of the writing. They appear to be in a state of good preservation. Prof. Dowson’s lithographs are fairly good, though it is likely that some letters, which appear in them to be imperfectly formed, may not have been so on the original plates. In making the subjoined transcript I have taken the lithographs to be accurate copies of the original plates.

The plates seem to have each two roundish holes .4˝ in diameter for the rings which held them together. One of the rings has a circular seal, about 13/16˝ in diameter, closely resembling that of the preceding grant. It has in relief, on a countersunk surface, the same symbol of solar worship and the same legend, Sāmanta-Dadda. Again this inscription was, like the preceding, written by Rēva, the head of the Department for Peace and War. The characters, therefore, closely resemble those of the preceding grant. It will suffice to call attention to the different forms of medial ū seen in rūp-ānur ūpam, II. 5-6, -abhirūpa-, 1.20, and kr ūr-āśayatayā-, 1.12, the prishtha-mātrā denoting medial ē in mrig-ā- dhirājē, 11. 11-12, the curled curve of t in Jayabhatah, 11.20-21, the cursive s in satata, 1.16 and the tailed h in –āhita, 1.10 and sangrāhya, 1.34. The language is Sanskrit. Except for some changes in the names of donees and the date, and the omission of the expressions chatuś-charana-and chāturvvidya-parikalpanā-pūrvam, the present grant is an exact copy of the preceding. As regards orthography, we may state, in addition to what has been noticed above, that the jihvāmūliya occurs in 11. 11 and 32, y is doubled after an anusvāra in samyyukta, 1. 45 and k before r in yajñādi-kkriyā-, 1.41.

The Plates were issued from Nāndīpuri by the illustrious Dadda II of the Early Gurjara Dynasty. He and his ancestors are described here exactly as in the preceding grant. The inscription is dated, both in words and in numerical symbols, on the fifteenth day of the bright fortnight of kārttika in the year 385. The date must be referred to the Kalachuri era. According to the epoch of 248-49 A.C., it would correspond, for the expired year 385, to the 12th October 634 A.C.2 It does not admit of verification. The object of the inscription is to record the grant, by Dadda II, of the same village Sirīshapadraka situated in the Akrūrēśvara vishaya, which he had donated only five years before by the preceding charter. Most of the Brāhmana donees were also the same; for out of the forty Brāhmanas who received the former grant, as many as thirty-two3
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¹See above, p. 57.
²If the year is applied as current, the date would correspond to the 22nd October 633 A. C.
³Cf. ‘The first grant was made to forty Brāhmanas; the names of thirty-two of them are repeated in the present grant, the persons omitted being Vātaśarmā and Mahādēva of the Kaundinya gōtra (No.