North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF CHANDRAVATI

ROHERĀ COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE PARAMĀRAS OF CHANDRĀVATI

No. 76 ; PLATE LXXVIII
RŌHĒRĀ COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE PARAMĀRAS OF CHANDRĀVATĪ
(Fragmentary)

...THE plate containing this fragmentary inscription is the first of (apparently) two plates, the second of which is not forthcoming. It was discovered by the late Pt. Gaurishankar Ojha of the Rājputānā Museum, Ajmer, in the possession of a gardener of Rōhērā,[4] or Rōhēḍā, c. 25 kms. South-west of Piṇḍwāḍā, the principal town of a tehsīl of the same name in the Sirōhī District and lies about six kilometres distant from the Rohērā Road Station on the Ajmer-Ahmedabad line of the Western Railway. Ojha noticed the inscription in the Annual Report on the Working of the Rājputānā Museum, for the year ending March, 1932. (p. 2-3), where he gives its summary; and from an impression supplied by Dr. Chhabra, then Deputy Director-General of Archaeology in India, the record was edited by Professor Sadhuram in the Epigraphia Indica Volume XXXII, pp. 135 ff., with transcript and facsimile. Nothing about the present whereabouts of the plate is known now, and as an impression of it is also not procurable, I edit the inscription here from a photograph which is kindly supplied to me by the Chief Epigraphist of the Central Archaeology Department.

... The inscription consists of eighteen lines of writing, covering a space 23.3 cms. broad by 20.85 cms. high. There is one more line at the bottom, which is written by a different hand and the sense of which cannot be made out. It appears to have been added later and has no connection, whatsoever, with the main record. The average height of the letters is about .8 cms. [5]

... The characters of the inscription are of the Nāgarī alphabet of the 11-12th century. The letter ch shows a transitional stage; e.g., in chakruḥ, 1. 8, it has its older form resembling v, whereas in Chāhumāna, 1. 18, it is written in an advanced form. Dh has developed a horn on its left limb and the verticals of dhā are joined by a mid-stroke, as in dharaṇī 1. 5, and Dhārā-varsha, 1. 17. The subscript ṇ often appears as l; cf. Pūrṇṇapāla, 1. 8. The conjunct consonant gg is written as gn, as in vargga, 1. 7; and v occasionally, though wrongly, it engraved as y, e.g., in tanūdbhava, 1. 7.

...The mason’s slovenliness, along with that of the writer, is often to be noticed; e.g., priyaḥ in 1. 1 is engraved as triyaḥ, sutau in 1.6, as śunau, and maṇḍalē in 1. 7, as gaṁḍalē. In Yaśōdhavalō-, 1. 11, both the pṛishṭha-mātrās of the dipthongs are separated from the letters to which they belong, and v appears as d. In śaraughaiḥ, 1. 15, the mātrā above the top of the second letter resembles the curve of the medial i and the ūrdhva-mātrā of the third has come out only as a dot. And in 1. 16 the word pādān appers as pārān and the top-knot of the left limb of m in siṁha is not distinct. It may, however, be observed here that some of the parts of letters which may not have been deeply and evenly engraved on the original, are possible missing on the photograph.
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[1] What appears to be intended is पादलग्नोस्मि
[2] Fill up the gap by reading येत्‌, which has left traces. Perhaps dattiṁ (a gift) is intended here.
[3] Read मही-.
[4] The antiquities of Rōhērā, also spelt as Rōhēḍā, are noticed in A.S.I.R., W.C., for 1905-06. pp.
[5]3 f. It is also spelt as Rōhidā, All these measurements are nowhere recorded; they are calculated by me from the scale of the photograph.

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