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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
ADDITIONAL INSCRIPTIONS kindly supplied their ink impression to me for inclusion of the record in this Volume.¹ The plates are edited here from that impression. ¹ They are two copper-plates, each measuring 10¾” long, 6⅞” broad and ⅛” thick. Their edges have been fashioned thicker so as to serve as rims for the protection of the writing. The plates have each, at the top. two holes, about ⅝” in diameter, for the rings which must have originally held them together ; but neither the rings nor the seal which must have been affixed to one of them is forthcoming now. The plates together weigh 178 tolas. They are inscribed only on the inner side. The record consists of 30 lines, which are equally divided on the two plates. The last line which contains the signmanual of the reigning king is only 2. 9” long. The characters belong to the western variety of the southern alphabets, resembling those of the other Gurjara grants². As regards individual letters, attention may be drawn to the form of the initial i which consists of two indented curves, one below the other; see iva, 1. 3; the medial u is shown by raising the vertical again to the top or by adding a flowing curve to it; see ru in Bharukachchhāt, 1. 1 and guru-, 1, 10; ḍ has a tail in -daṇḍa-, 1. 17; ṅ shows its upper curve turned inside; see a-śaṅkit-, 1. 5; b is rectangular in -bindu-, 1.22 and round in -bāhu-, 1. 13; l has two forms— the old one as in -lōka-, 1. 4 and the cursive one as in sakala-, both in 1. 4; ś also appears in two forms, with its bar slanting as in -śālini, 1. 2, or horizontal as invarṇṇ- āśrama-, 1. 8. A final consonant is indicated by a flowing curve commencing at the top as in vasēt, 1. 25. Punctuation is marked by double dots or by single or double vertical strokes. The sign-manual of the donor is in northern characters and exhibits straight top-strokes as in the modern Nāgarī. The numerical symblos for 400, 20 and 7 occur in 1. 29. It is noteworthy that the symbol for 4, which is added to the sign for 100 to turn it into one for 400, is unlike that used in other records of the period³, being closely similar to that for 100, and the symbol for 7 has an indented top.
The language is Sanskrit. The eulogistic and formal parts of the grant are mutatis mutandis identical with the respective portions of the grants of Jayabhaṭa III and later Gurjara princes. Except with the four benedictive and imprecatory verses which occur at the end, the whole record is in prose. As regards orthography, the only peculiarities which call for notice are as follows:- the reduplication of the consonant following r, rightly in such cases as-Karṇṇ – ānvayē, 1. 2, but wrongly in -Harshsha-, 1. 4 and varshsha-, 1. 24, that of the consonant preceding r as in puttra-, 1. 18, the use of ri for the vowel ṛi as in krishṇ-āhayō, 1.26 and of n for anusvāra in rājahansaḥ, 1. 3. The plates refer themselves to the reign of Dadda III alias Bāhusahāya of the Early Gurjara Dynasty. He was a devout worshipper of Mahēśvara and had attained the pañchamahāśabda. As in other later records, his family is said to have descended from the epic hero Karṇa. The genealogy of the donor is traced from Dadda II, who is said to have obtained great glory by the protection he gave to the king of Valabhī when the latter was defeated by the Emperor Harsha. The description of this Dadda II, his son Jayabhaṭa II and the latter's son Dadda III who made the present grant, is given here exactly as in other later records of the period⁴. The plates were issued from Bharukachchha. The object of the present inscription is to record the grant, by Dadda III-Bāhu
sahāya, of the village Uvarivadra in the territorial division Kōrēlla-Eighty-four. The
donee was a Brāhmaṇa of the Bharadvāja gōtra, who resided at the village Sāvatthī. 1 The plates have since been edited by S. N. Chakravarti in Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVII, pp. 197 ff.
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