North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF SOUTH KONKAN

has become venerable by the Cupid-like great beauty and good fortune of his son, King Avasara(II), who, like Yudhishṭhira, is adorned will matchless virtues such as truthfulness, and liberality‒

..(Line 30). In the years nine hundred increased by ten, which have passed by the era of the Śaka king, in the (cyclic) year Sarvadhārin, on Monday, the fifth tithi of the bright fortnight of Kārttika, the three Śrēshṭhins‒viz. Nāgai Śrēshṭhin, son of Rēuma Śrēshṭhin, who is a son of Siddhai Śrēshṭhin, (and) Lokkai Śrēshṭhin, son of Rēvaṇa Śrēshṭhin, who is a son of Chhaṭhṭhamai Śrēshṭhin, (and) Ādityavarman, son of Khētraiya Indra Śrēshṭhin, who is son of Mahaḍai Śrēshṭhin‒have, by offering forty dīnāras to the illustrious King Avasara (II), worshipped his feet for the confirmation of two jīvalōkas[1] in the hereditary (villages) Kiñjala and Pulīsa. For the expenses of haḍapa[2] in connection with it all the three are to give two lakhs of areca nuts every year. The share of Nāgai Śrēshṭhin should be preserved free from taxes.

.. (Line 38). Besides, this should be made known to the illustrious Rāvaṇa Mantrin, Ukkai Śrēshṭhin, Nāgapāla Amātya, Pulēna Haḍapa and other principal royal officers, all people, whether young or old, the guilds and artisans, the members of the five monasteries as well as the three monasteries. And this should be preserved, so long as the Moon and the Sun endure, by the sons, grandsons and others of the illustrious king Avasara as well as their sons and grandsons.

(Here follow three benedictory and imprecatory verses.)

.. (Verse 17). This royal order was clearly written by the poet, the illustrious Dēvapāla, son of the illustrious Vāmana, the illustrious Nāgara-Sāndhivigrahika, by the permission of his Lord, and it was incised in (all its) details by Vajjaḍa.

May this (royal) order be preserved with all its particulars till the end of this world ! May there be happiness and prosperity !

No. 41 : PLATES LXXIX‒LXXXII
KHĀREPĀṬAṆ PLATES OF RAṬṬARĀJA : ŚAKA YEAR 930

..THESE plates were found more than a hundred and twenty-five years ago by a Brāhmaṇa of Khārepāṭan, a town in the Devagaḍ tālukā of the Ratnāgiri District. The inscription on them was first edited by Pandit Bāl Gangādhar Śāstrī in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. I (Old Series), pp. 209 f. It was later edited with facsimiles of the plates, but without a translation, by Dr. Kielhorn in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III, pp. 292 f. They are edited here from the same facsimiles.

.. “There are four copper-plates, the second and third of which are engraved on both sides, while the others are so on one side only. They are marked with the Nāgarī numerical figures from 1 to 4, which are engraved on the right margin of the first plate, the second side of the first, second and third plates, and the first side of the last. Each plate measures from 73/4” (19.68 cm.) to 7-7/8” (20.02 cm.) broad by about 4-3/8” (11.12 cm.) high. The plates are strung on a circular ring, about ¼” (.64 cm.) thick and 2-1/8” (5.40 cm.) in diameter, which had not been cut when this record came into Dr. Fleet’s hands. As will be seen from the accompanying photo-lithograph, this ring has soldered on to it an image of the mythical bird Garuḍa. He
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[1] Jivalōka seems to mean the same as vṛitti, a source of maintenance.
[2] Haḍapa is a Kannaḍa word meaning a betel-box. It seems to be used later in line 39 in the sense of haḍapavaḷa ‘a betel-box-carrier’, who was a king’s regular attendant.