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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
ADDITIONAL INSCRIPTIONS PARAGAON PLATES OF PRITHVIDEVA II : YEAR 897 Chhattisgarh Division in Madhya Pradesh. The plates were sent by the Deputy Commissioner, Raipur, to the Government Epigraphist for India for decipherment. They are now in the poṡsession of the former Malguzar of the village. They are edited here from an excellent ink impression kindly supplied by the Government Epigraphist. The copper-plates are two in number, each measuring 12. 8" broad by 7.5" high. They are inscribed on the inner side only and are held together by a ring, passing through a hole, .6" in diameter, in the centre of the top of each plate. The ring has a seal, 2. 6" in diameter, soldered to it. The latter has, inside a border of knobs, the figure of squatting Lakshmī with an elephant on either side pouring water over her. The technical execution of this emblem is much inferior than in the case of the seal of the preceding grant. Below the emblem appears the legend Rāja-śrīmat-Pṛithvīdēvaḥ in two lines in the Nāgarī characters. The weight of the plates is 236½ tolas, and that of the ring and the seal, 17½ tolas. The record consists of thirty-seven lines, of which nineteen are inscribed on the inner side of the first plate and the remaining eighteen, on that of the second. The characters are Nāgarī and resemble those of the preceding grant. The average size of the letters is about .4". The grant is written very carelessly and contains several mistakes. The language is Sanskrit, and except for Oṁ namō Vrahmaṇē in the beginning and the name of the engraver and the date at the end, the whole record is metrically composed. There are, in all. twenty-seven verses, all of which are numbered. The first ten verses which carry the genealogy from Kōkalla to the donor's father Ratnadēva II occur in the same order as in the preceding grant; but verse 3 of the latter, eulogising Kārtavīrya, has been omitted. Verse 11, eulogising the donor Pṛithvīdēva II, occurs also in other grants of the king. As regards orthography, the only peculiarities that call for notice are the use of y for j, of v for b (except in the perfect forms of the root bhū) and of the dental for the palatal sibilant and vice versa; see-Yāmadagni-, 1. 20, Vrahmaṇē, 1. 1, -saurya-, 1. 6 and -sahaśrēṇa, 1. 32. The consonant following r is reduplicated in a few cases; see sarvva-, 1. 5.
The plates refer themselves to the reign of Pṛithvīdēva II of the Kalachuri Dynasty of Ratanpur. His genealogy is traced from Kōkalla I of Tripurī as in the preceding grant of his father Ratnadēva II. The object of this inscription is to record the grant, by Pṛithvīdēva II, of the village Vaḍadā, situated in Kōsala, on the occasion of his father's śrāddha. The donee was the same Brāhmaṇa who received the preceding grant, viⱬ., Padmanābha, the son of Hariśarman and grandson of Sahadēva who had emigrated from the village Gaurī¹. His gōtra and pravaras also are mentioned as in the preceding grant. The tāmra-praśasti, as the inscription is called in verse 26, was composed by the poet Malhaṇa,² the son of Śubhaṅkara. It was written on the copper-plates by Sūpaṭa,³ the son of Kīrtidhara. The engraver was Dharaṇīdhara, the son of Lakshmīdhara.
The plates are dated , in the last line, on Wednesday, the 15th tithi of the bright
fortnight of Phālguna in the year 897 of an unspecified era. The tithi and the year are
expressed in the decimal figures only. The date must, of course, be referred to the Kalachuri era and regularly corresponds, for the expired year 897, to Wednesday, the 27th February 1146 A.C. On that day tithi Phālguna śu. di. 15 commenced 8 h. 25 m. after mean
sunrise.⁴ If the grant was actually made, and not merely recorded, on the aforementioned 1 The village-name occurs as Gōri in the preceding plates.
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