North Indian Inscriptions

ADDITIONAL INSCRIPTIONS

NAGARDHAN PLATES OF SVAMIRAJA: YEAR 322

to be constucted]^¹ with devotion by [Nārā]yaṇasvāmin for the well-being of the adhishṭhāna headed by the cows and the Brāhmaṇas, (and) for the increase [of the religious merit of his mother and father].

(Line 6) [At the same adhishthāna in his own bhōga there has been erected this yashṭ^2ī] by Satyanāga, the Sēnāpati and Ārakshika^³ of the king, who is a native of Mahārashtra and is the foremost of ^⁴ . . . . . .for the removal of calamities, for the attainment of prosperity and for the happiness and well-being of all creatures

(L. 8) Moreover-
While (our) king is ruling over the wide earth . . . . . . .may (this) yashṭī, (raised) by the Nāgas themselves, remaining unimpaired, proclaim by its from the duty of the warlike people . . . . .; for this is the (meeting) place of (all) people-friends as well as foes—in (a sprite of) service and reverence!

NO. 120 ; PLATE XCIX
NAGARDHAN PLATES OF SVAMIRAJA: (KALACHURI) YEAR 322

THESE copper-plates were discovered in 1948 at Nagardhan, a small village about 3 miles south of Rāmṭēk, the chief town of a tahsil of the same name in the Nagpur District of Madhya Pradesh. Mr. Hiralal Upasrao Mahadule of Nagardhan, who obtained possession of the plates, handed them over to me for decipherment. They were first published by me the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVIII, pp. I ff. The record is edited here from the original plates and their ink impression taken kindly for me by Mr. V.K. Aiyar, Superintendent, Government Press, Nagpur

They are three copper-plates, each measuring 7.9” in length and 4.I” in height. The first and third plates are inscribed on one side, and the second, on both the sides. The plates are together by a ring, ½” in thickness and 2” in diameter, on which slides a small circular band with a rectangular seal, measuring I.2” by I”, which is soldered to it. The surface of the seal is divided by a horizontal line into two almost equal parts. The upper part contains a symbol, apparently a goad, lying horizontally, while the lower has the legend Gaṇa-dattiḥ, meaning 'a gift of the Corporation', inscribed in the same characters as those of the grant. The plates together weigh 67½ tolas, and the ring and the seal, 2½ tolas. This mode of stringing the plates together resembles that of the Vākātaka grants. though the seal here is rectangular, not round as in the latter grants. The plates are in a state of good preservation, and there is no uncertainty in the reading of any part of the text.

The record consists of 28 lines, which are evenly divided on the four inscribed faces of the three plates. The characters are of the box-headed variety, the boxes at the top
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¹ The missing words at the end of line 4 probably contained the ancient name (Vēṇvā ?) of the river Bīnā, on the left bank of which this tīrtha or ghāṭ was constructed. According to the Mārkaṇḍēya Purāṇa (adhyāya 57, v. 19), the Vēṇvā takes its rise in the Pāriyātra mountain.
² Yashṭi is a memorial pillar erected to commemorate some notable event or the death of a person. See above, p. 607.
³ This technical title occurs in the from Ārakshaka in the Arthaśātra of Kauṭilya (adhikaraṇa vii, adhyāya 17) apparently in the sense of 'the Chief of policeman (ārakshin)'. The Daśakumāracharita (Bombay Sanskrit Series ed., p. 58) uses ārakbika in the sense of 'a policeman'. Since the title is borne here by Satyanāga who was a high military officer, it is evidently used here in the sense of 'the Head of the Police'.
⁴ The portion lost here may have described Satyanāga as 'the foremost of the Nāgas who hailed from Mahārāshṭra.'