North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

with the previous custom, which is not to be entered by chāṭas and bhaṭas, not to be assigned and not to be attached, and which carries with it three hundred drammas being the cost of the crop produced therein.

..(Line 70). Therefore, none should cause any obstruction while he together with his relatives is enjoying or allowing others to enjoy it, while he is cultivating it himself or is allowing others to cultivate it.

For it has already been said by ancient sages:-

(Here follow seven benedictory and imprecatory verses.)

..(Line 84). And as it is, the giver of the charter records his approval by the hand of the scribe : “What is written in this charter has been approved by Me, the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara, the illustrious Nāgārjunadēva, the son of the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara, the illustrious Vajjaḍadēvaraja.”

..And this has been written by me, the Treasury Officer, the illustrious Jōgapaiya, the nephew of the Treasury Officer, the illustrious Mahākavi Nāgalaiya.

.. Whatever is written here in deficient or redundant letters−all that is authoritative. May there be happiness ! May there be prosperity !

No. 14 : PLATE XXXVII-XLI
ṬHĀṆĀ PLATES OF MUMMUṆIRĀJA : ŚAKA YEAR 970

.. THESE plates were discovered in 1956 while digging the ground between the Church and the District Office at Ṭhāṇā, the chief town of the Ṭhāṇā District in Mahārāshṭra. They were presented by Mr. M. V. Hegde, M.L.A., to the Director of Archives, Bombay. They are now deposited in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. Dr. P. M. Joshi, Director of Archives, Bombay, sent me Photostat copies of the inscription on the plates, from which I edited the grant first in my Saṁśōdhana-muktāvali (Marathi), Part IV, pp. 115 f. in 1961, and later in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 145 f. in 1974. I edit it here from the same copies.

.. The copper plates are five in number, the first and the last being inscribed on the inner side only, and the rest on both the sides. The plates measure 31.25 cm. in breadth and 25.40 cm. in heigh and are held together by a ring which has the usual Śilāhāra Garuḍa seal. The plates, the ring and the seal weigh nearly 11.30 kgm. The inscription is in a good state of preservation, but in lines 63, 66, 91 and 110 a few place-names, personal names and a gōtra- name have become illegible.

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet as in other grants of the Early Śilāhāras of North Kōṅkaṇ. The letter a has assumed the form as in modern Hindi (see ady-āpi, line 23); kh has not yet developed a tail in its left limb (see sikhara−, line 2); the forms of jh, the subscript ṇ in the conjunct ṇṇ and the palatal ś are noteworthy (see śrī-Jhaṁjha-, line 12; Karṇṇa-, line 18; and Śivo, line 2). In stating the grants in drammas, figures are used. The forms of figures 5, 7, 8 and 9 are noteworthy.

..The language is Sanskrit, and, like other grants of the Early Śilāhāras, the present one also is written partly in verse and partly in prose. There are thirty-three verses in all, of which twenty-two occur in the eulogistic portion. The record opens with a verse in praise of Gaṇanāyaka (Gaṇapati), which is followed by another invoking the blessings of Śiva. The next