North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF SOUTH KONKAN

No. 40 : PLATES LXXVII AND LXXVIII
PAṬṬAṆAKUḌI PLATES OF AVASARA II (?) : SAKA YEAR 910

..THESE copper plates were first published by Mr. V. K. Rajvade and Mr. G. K. Chandorark in the Annual Report of the Bhārata Itihāsa Samśōdhaka, Maṇḍapa, Poona, for Śaka 1833, pp. 430 f. They had obtained them from Adappa Kalappa Upadhye of Chikōḍi. They have been re-edited by Mr. B. R. Gopal and Mr. V. S. Subrahmanyam in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXVII, pp. 56 f. They were obtained by them from Tonappa Parisa Upadhye, the priest of the Jain basti of Paṭṭaṇakudi, who claims that they have been preserved as heirloom in his family. It is not known if he is related to the person from whom the previous editors had obtained them. However, as they have recently been found at Paṭṭaṇakuḍi, I have named them after that place.

..“Of the three plates of the set, only the second has writing on both sides, while the first and the third are engraved only on the inner side. The rims of each of the plates are slightly raised to protect the writing which is well preserved. The plates, each measuring 26 cm. by 16 cm. are strung on to an oval ring about 1. 2 cm. thick and measuring 11.5 cm. by 9 cm. The ring, which had not been cut . . . .is soldered to a seal containing, in a countersunk surface, Garuḍa in human form with two arms. He wears a Karaṇḍa-mukuṭa, has a long beak-like nose, a special characteristic of his, is turned to proper right, and possesses a pair of fluttering wings seen above the shoulders, of which the one above the left shoulder is somewhat damaged. He is depicted with the hands brought together close to the chest and held in an añjali pose and seated on his haunches. The three plates together weigh 1830 gr., while the ring with the seal weighs 490 gr. There are in all 51 lines of writing, twelve on the first plate and thirteen on each of the three remaining sides[1].”

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet. The following peculiarities are noteworthy. The guttural nasal ṅ is without a dot (see Śubhatuṅga, line 3) ; bh is open-mouthed (see Vallabha, line3) ; dh has yet no horn on the left (see vivudha-, line 5) and h shows a slight tail, which is not yet well developed (see iha, line 24). The language is Sanskrit, and the inscription is written partly in verse and partly in prose. The initial portion containing first the description of the Rāshṭrakūṭas and then of the ancestors of the reigning Śilāhāra king Avasara is in verse. This is followed by the formal portion of the record in prose and finally come the benedictory and imprecatory verses followed by a verse recording the names of the writer and the engraver. The orthography shows the usual reduplication of the consonant following r (including the wrong one of sh) and the use of v for b (see sad-dharmma, line 1, Nityavarshshō, line 5, and vivudha, line 5). The record is, on the whole, well composed and written.

..The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śilāra (i.e. Śilāhāra) king Avasara II (?)[2], ruling from Balinagara. It opens with a verse invoking victory for Sarvajña[3] and joy for
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[1] Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXVII, p. 56.
[2] If the genealogy in the subsequent two grants of Raṭṭarāja is taken as correct, he would be Avasara III.
[3] Sarvajña usually means Buddha, but there is nothing Buddhistic in this inscription. It also denotes an Arhat, and it may be noted in this connection that the plates were found in the possession of a priest of a Jain basti. But there is no indication of its connection with Jainism also.