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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA BHOPAL COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF MAHAKUMARA UDAYAVARMAN
No. 46 ; PLATE XLVI-XLVIII ...THE plates which bear the sub-joined inscription were found some time in the latter part of the nineteenth century, during survey operations, in a field at the village of Uljamūṁ [2] in the Sehore District of the former State of Bhopāl and now the head-quarters of a district of the same name in Madhya Pradesh. The inscription was examined by J. F. Fleet, to whom the plates were sent by Colonel Kincaid, who was then a Political Agent at Bhopāl, and Fleet also edited and published it in the Indian Antiquary, Volume XVI (for 1887), pages 252 ff., with his transcript in Roman characters and a photolithic illustration between pp. 256-57. His remarks in the edition of the inscription are noteworthy. He stares that “during the interval of these three years the rims have been cut off, making the plates quite smooth, in order to put them in frames in which they can be hung on a wall.” [3] With eagerness, I endeavoured to obtain the original plates for examination but could not succeed in knowing in whose possession they are now ; and the inscription is edited here from facsimile accompanying Fleet’s article in the India Antiquary. ... It is a set two rectangular plates of copper, measuring 31.43 cms. by 24. 13 cms. and weighing 314.78 kgms. The edges of them were originally fashioned slightly thicker than the inscribed surface, to protect the writing, but were cut off some time between 1884 and 1887, as stated above. Both th plates are inscribed only on the inner side and are in a state of perfect preservation. The letters are well formed and deeply incised, with the exception of a very few which are deformed by redundant strokes of the chisel or are damaged by rust, particularly on the second plate, which is engraved with slight indifference, as will be noted from the corrections made in the transcript that follows. There are two holes in the lower margin of the first plate and in the upper margin of the second, each with the diameter of about 6 mms. and disturbing the continuity of the writing in one or two lines, indicating that originally the plates were held together ; 50 by the rings are now not forthcoming. The second plate, in a rectangle of double lines, 50 by 55 mms., formed in the middle of lines 34 to 41, shows the figure of Garuḍa in human form but with the head of a bird, facing front. The head of the figure is turned to right and the hands joined near the chest, as in devotion. ...
The record is written in the Nāgarī alphabet of the twelfth century A.C. It consists of
41lines, 19 of which are inscribed on the first place and the rest on the second.
[4]
In the first ten
lines the letters show the average size of .6 to .8 cms., but thereafter they are slightly reduced
in size. To note the formation of letters, we find that the initial ā begins with a semi-circular
[1]
This line which is not a part of the original inscription was evidently written in a later age by somebody
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