North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

my request, a copy of the facsimile, which is illustrated. I have also received a set of photographs of the inscription from the Chief Epigraphist, Archaeological Survey of India, and on the basis of all this material, I edit the inscription here[1] . The plates have been now procured by the said College where they are preserved.

... It is a set of two copper-plates[2] which were found at a petty hamlet bearing the name Kōkāpur and situated in the vicinity of a bigger village Shinvāḍ, about 10 kms, to the north of Mōḍāsā,[3] now the chief town of a tālukā of that name in the Sābarkāṅṭhā District. The plates were first noticed by Shri Soni, with a widow of the mercantile caste, whose name is not known, nor could she remember how and under what circumstances they came to be with her. Each of the plates is 7.4” (c.18.8 cms.) by 5.3” (c. 13.5 cms.) in size[4] and both of them together weigh about 2½ lbs, i.e., 1.13 kilograms. Each of the plates bears writing on the inner side only : it is in a fair state of preservation. The first plate showe 15 lines of writing and the second only 6 lines. The lower margin of the first and the upper of the second has a hole pierced through it, for a ring to hold them together, originally ; but the ring is not now forthcoming.

...The Characters belong to the eleventh century A.C. and bear a general resemblance to those of the Bēṭamā and Bāṅswāḍā plate inscriptions of Bhōjadēva, but they are not so carefully engraved nor do they show the symmetry of beauty in formation. To note the Palaeographical pecu- liarities of the letters of the present inscription, we find that the initial a, which appears twice, in 11. 11 and 20, has been written as in modern Nāgarī ; the initial i , which occurs three times, in 11.7, 18 and 20, shows a similar formation in the first and third instances, whereas in the second, the loop below is replaced by a curve ; the superscript from of k sometimes loses its loop as in paksha but not in śukla, both in 1.1 ; the medial u and the consonant ḍ do not show the curve of the end above, e.g., in –adhikēshu, 1.1, and mōhaḍa and maṁḍalē, both in 1.6. The letter ṇ is without the top stroke ; cf. Brāhmaṇa, 1.8 ; t is often without the vertical bar at its top. cf. śatēshu, 1 . 1 ; the tail of letters like d, h and ś is occasionally not carved, and in a number of instances the last of these letters is without the vertical on the right, cf., e.g., śudi, 1.2. The consonant dh resembles v but is without the top-stroke, as in dhānya,1. 11. The sign for r indicates all the different varieties noted previously, e.g., in ravau-, 1.2, it shows two strokes meeting at the top; in parama and bhaṭṭāraka, both in 1.4, it shows a wedge, and in rāja, 1.6, it has a loop partly drawn.

...The language is Sanskrit ; it is full of inaccuracies. In some places we have wrong cases, inappropriate verbal derivations and errors in spellings, and with all these, the occasional use of local words combined with slovenliness in the technical execution sufficiently exhausts the patience of one wishing to make out the reading. The record is wholly in prose.

...The following orthographical peculiarities may be noted : (1) the use of the sign for v to denote b as well, as in Vrāhmaṇa, 1.8 ; (2) occasional doubling of a consonant preceding and following r, as in kahēttra, 1.10 and vinirggata, 1. 11, but not in dharma, 1.12 ; (3) putting the dental sibilant for the palatlal, e.g. in paramēsvara, 1. 3; there are, however, at least two clear examples of the reverse ; they are ; Mōhaḍavāśa, 1. 6, and śuta for suta in 11. 12, 14, 18 and 20, though suta is also found in 1. 17; (4) the anusvāra appears generally for the appropriate nasal, as in
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[1] It may be noted that there are some minor variations in the reading from the photographs and the facsimiles published with Shastri’s article in the Magazine of the College, e.g., the photographs show sapana, Karēṇa and chētata in 11. 8, 12 and 20 respectively, but in the facsimiles they appears saṁpana, chārēṇa and chatata respectively.
[2] While editing the record, Sircar has observed that it is inscribed on both the sides of one plate. In fact, the plates are two and not one, and the information supplied to him in this connection was incorrect, as I could ascertain from the authorities of the College where the plates are at present preserved. My visit to Mōḍāsā in Fabruary. 1972 enabled me to examine the original plates, due to the kind courtesy of the owner, and also to correct some of the readings in my previous transcript of the text prepared from the photographs. Moreover, besides knowing that they are actually two plates, and not one, they are thick and heavy, and the letters, which are not very deeply engraved, are not visible on the reverse side. Both the plates have raised rims and the letters, though carefully written, are often engraved without paying due attention to then exact form. Some of the mātrās are so thinly engraved as not to come out clearly on the photographs, e.g., that of ni in vinirggatāya, 1. 11, and there are occasional redundant chisel strokes deforming the letters, e.g., of v in Dantivarma- in 1. 14, appearing as k.
[3] Mōhaḍavāsaka of the present inscription, situated in 23” 28’ N. Long. : 73° 20’ E. Lat. It is also mentioned as a maṇḍala in the Harsōlā grants of Sīyaka, of V.S. 1005.
[4] This is according to Shastri, whereas Dr. Sircar in his article in op. cit. states that the plate is ”about 9 inches in length and about 6 inches in height” (p. 192).

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