North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

..(Line 30). Therefore, none should cause any obstruction while, he, together with his descendants and relatives, is himself enjoying or allowing others to enjoy the clusters of trees in his own orchard.

For, it has already been said by great sages:-
( Here occurs an imprecatory verse.)

..(Line 35). Having known this, all future kings should civet only the religious merit obtained by the protection (of this religious gift), and none should be foremost in respect of infamy by the sin of confiscating that gift. He who, on the other hand, though thus entreated, will confiscate it or allow it to be confiscated, with his mind clouded by the darkness of ignorance as a result of greed, will incur all the five sins together with minor sins, and will experience for a long time (the pangs of) hells such as Raurava, Mahāraurava, and Andhatāmisra.

..(Line 41). 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 king Chhintapaiyadēva, the son of the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara the illustrious king Vajjaḍadēva.”

.. And this has been written by me, Jōupaiya, the nephew of the Treasury Officer, the great poet, the illustrious Nāgalaiya, by the order of the King, the Sāmanta, the illustrious Chhintapaiya. Whatever is written here−in deficient or redundant syllables−all that is authoritaive.

May there be prosperity ! May there be happiness !

No. 11 : PLATES XXIX-XXXII
BERLIN MUSEUM PLATES OF CHHITTARĀJA : ŚAKA YEAR 956

.. THESE plates have been lying in the Berlin Museum for a long time. Their original findspot is not known. They were published with facsimiles by Dr. Ernst Waldschmidt of Gӧttingen in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morganländischen Gasellschaft, Band XC (1936), pp. 26 f. They are edited here from the same facsimiles.

.. The copper plates are there in number, measuring 21 cm by 15.2 cm., and are held together by a ring, which has a round seal 4.5 cm in diameter, with the figure of Garuḍa in the vajraparyaṁkāsana, with the hands joined in the añjali-mudrā. The first and the third plate are inscribed on one side and the second on both the sides.

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet as in other grants of the Śilāhāras. The following peculiarities may be noted. The initial i consists of a curve turned to the left below two dots (see iti in line 4); in initiasl ē the left limb is not yet separated from the right (see ēva, line 24 ) ; kh does not yet show a tail in its member (see Śaṁkhachūḍaṁ in line 5) ; subscript th is placed horizontally (see tapo-tyarttham, line 40); so also the superscript ñ (see saṁgṛihyēchchhāñ-cha, line 40) ; ph has a double curve on the right of its vertical (see saphalā, line 41); and h has developed a tail (see haṭhāt line 12). The language is Sanskrit and like other early grants of the Śilāhāras, the record is written partly in verse and partly in prose. As regards orthography, we may note that the consonant following r is reduplicated (see sarvva-, line 1); v is used for b and s for ś (see vabhūva, line 6 and sivō, line 2). Otherwise, the records is written in fairly correct Sanskrit.

..The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śīlāra (called Śilāhāra in line 28) Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Chhittarāja (whose name is written here in all places as Chhintarāja). The