North Indian Inscriptions

MISCELLANEOUS INSCRIPTIONS

TAHANKAPAR PLATE OF PAMPARAJADEVA : YEAR 966

previously (and ) 140 Vijayarāja-ţaṅkas for the Halavā paṭṭī.^¹ Similarly in the document of the Chikhalī village, (the amount fixed is) 150 Vijayarāja-ţaṅkas for the three-quarters of the Pralavā paṭṭi.

The witnesses for this transaction are the Bhaṭṭa Rāṇaka Gōvinda, Gaintā Lakshmīdhara, Gaintā Mahēśvara, Nāyaka Chhaṇḍū, Nāyaka Dāmōdara (and) Sāvu Pāṇha.

(Line 9) (This document is) written by the Paṇḍita Vishṇuśarman on Monday, the 10th (lunar) day of the dark (fortnight) of Bhādrapada, the nakshatra being Mṛiga in the year 965. Engraved by the Sēṭhī Kēśava in town of Pāḍi. May there be good fortune !

No.117 ; PLATE XCVI B
TAHANKAPAR PLATE OF PAMPARAJADEVA : (KALACHURI) YEAR 966

THIS plate was discovered, together with the preceding one, in an old well at Tahankāpār in the former Kāṅkēr State in Madhya Pradesh. It is now in the possession of the former Chief of Kāṅkēr. The inscription on this plate also was edited with a translation and a lithograph by R. B. Hiralal in the Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, pp. 166 ff. It is edited here from excellent ink impressions kindly supplied by the Government Epigraphist for India.

The plate measures 7.8" broad and 3.3" high. It is 'thick in the middle, but very thin at the ends, so thin, indeed, that the commencement svasti has cut through the plate, leaving holes in the engraved portion, and similarly at the diagonally opposite end, a portion is exceedingly worn out, leaving irregular holes there. The corners of this plate are rounded off.'^²

The inscription consists of 11 lines and is in a good state of preservation. The characters are Nāgarī. As the present record was written only about a year after the preceding one, it presents the same palæographical peculiarities as the latter. Besides what has been noted before, the old form of the initial ī, which occurs in Īsvara-, 1.7, deserves notice. The language is corrupt Sanskrit, replete with grammatical and orthographical mistakes which are pointed out below, in the foot-notes to the transcribed text.

The present plate was granted, while residing at Pāḍi, by the Paramabhaṭṭāraka and Mahāmāṇḍalika, the illustrious Pamparājadēva, who meditated on the feet of the paramabhaṭṭāraka and Mahāmāṇḍalika, the illustrious Sōmarāja, who in turn mediated on the feet of the Mahāmāṇḍalika, the illustrious Bōpadēva of the Sōma-vaṁśa. It will be noticed that unlike the preceding inscription which was a business document, the present grant contains a description of the royal pedigree for three generations.

The object of the present inscription is to register two grants,-one of the village Kōṅgarā, made before (the god ) Prāṅkēśvara^³ by Pamparāja and the other of the village Āṇḍali, situated in the same district, by his son, the prince Bōpadēva—on the occasion of a solar eclipse on Sunday, in the month Kārttika in the cyclic year Īśvara, the nakshatra being Chitrā. The numerical figures of the year are given at the
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¹ In translating this expression and a similar one in the next sentence, I have followed Hiralal, but I am not certain about the meaning. According to Hiralal, Halbas are aboriginal tribe, chiefly found in Kāṅkēr. Paṭṭa is also used as a territorial term in 1. 15 of the Khōh plates of Mahārāja Hastin (C. I. I, Vol. III, p. 103). Pati-bhāga or patti-bhāga occurs in the sense of ‘a share of the produce’ in the Hīrahaḍagalli plates of Śivaskandavarman. Ep.Ind., Vol. I, p.6.
² Ep,Ind., Vol. IX, p. 167.
³ See below, p. 600, n.3.