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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAHISHMATI dvāja gōtra who is a religious student of the Vājasanēya śākhā, (to be enjoyed by him) as long as the moon, the sun and the ocean would endure, for the increase of religious merit of my parents and myself. (Line 5)––Having known (this), you should not cause from this day, (any) obstruction while he is enjoying it according to the condition of enjoying brahmadēya land. (L. 6) ( In) the year 100 (and) 60 (and) 7, in (the month) Bhādrapada (and) the bright
(fortnight), on the (lunar) day seven. The Dūtaka is Guhadāsa. No. 7; PLATE III C THIS copper-plate was found in the debris of Cave No. II at Bāgh in Madhya Bhārat. The inscription on it was first brought to notice in the Annual Report of the Archæological Department of the Gwalior State for 1928-29, pp. 15 and 28. Its date was discussed by me in an article on the age of the Bāgh Caves published in the Indian Historical Quarterly,Vol. XXI, pp. 79 f. It is edited here from an ink impression kindly supplied by the Director of the Archæological Department of Madhya Bhārat.
The record is on a single copper-plate and, like the preceding inscription of Subandhu, it is incised on only one face of it, measuring 8.3" broad by 4.5” high. It has no ringhole and there is no indication of a seal having ever been attached to it. The inscription consists of fourteen lines, of which the last containing the royal sign manual is incised in the margin on the left. The record is in a good state of preservation except in the first three lines where a few aksharas in the upper left corner have now become illegible. Again, the plate has lost a small triangular piece with its two arms measuring 1.5" each in the lower right corner which has resulted in the unfortunate loss of an important portion of the grant mentioning its date. The size of letters varies from .15" to .3". The characters are of the western variety of the South Indian alphabets resembling those of Svāmidāsa’s plate1 except that most of the letters have nail-heads instead of knobheads. The only peculiarities that call for notice are that the length of the medial ī is shown by a double curve as in the Vākātaka grants, see chīvara, 1.8, and that t, which is generally unlooped, shows a loop in āchchhettā 1.12. The orthography shows the usual reduplication of the consonant following r, see chandr-ārkk-ārnnava-, II. 5-6. The inscription refers itself to the reign of Mahārāja Subandhu. The object of it is to register the grant, by Subandhu, of a village situated in the pathaka of Dāsilakapallī.2
The grant was made for providing materials for the worship of the Buddha and
maintaining an alms-house in the vihāra called Kalāyana,3 for repairing the broken and
dilapidated portions of the vihāra and for supplying clothing, food, medicine, beds and 1Above, No. 2. |
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