North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

No. 143 ; PLATE CXXX

DHURĒTI COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF TRAILŌKYAMALLA

[ Kalachuri ] Year 963

THIS inscription was first brought to notic by N. P. Chakravarti, Government Epigraphist for India, who published a brief account of it in the Annual Report, Archaeological Survey of India, 1935-36, pp. 90 f., and also edited it, with a photolith, in the Epigraphia Indica Vol. XXV (1937-38), pp. l ff. and Plate facing p. 5. Subsequently, a revised transcript with translation of it was published by Dr. V. V. Mirashi in his Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. IV, pp. 369 ff. and Plate, from impressions provided by the Government Epigraphist. The plates from which Chakravarti took the impressions were preserved in the Treasury at Rēwā which was then the capital of a State and is now the headquarters of a district of that name is Madhya Pradesh ; but no information is forthcoming as to the present whereabouts of the original.⁴ And as a fresh impression thereof could not be obtained, I edit the inscription here from the plate accompanying Mirashi’s article.

The inscription is on plates of copper, which are said to have been found by a cultivator in 1926, in course of ploughing his field in the village at Dhurētī, about 10 kms. south-east of Rēwā, the headquarters of a district in Madhya Pradesh. The edges of the plates are turned up all round the rim, and each of them measures 38∙75 cms. broad by 26∙67 cms. high. They
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¹ The word paśu, mentioned here in the list of other taxes, probably means “the supply of bullocks for the conveyance of royal officers on tour”. Cf. a-paramparā-balīvarda-grahaṇa in E. I., Vol. XXVI. p. 149. Dr Sircar interprets in the sense of “cattle or animal for sacrificial purposes”, for which see I. E. G.
² The bracketed akshara is cut as ya. There are some other instances of the type, not noted separately.
³ Both the bracketed letters are misformed, and the pṛishṭha-mātrā of lō is cut closer to the preceding akshara, making it appear as sā
⁴ –midam-, as it appears in the writing, cannot be defended and the expressions should be taken as I have corrected here.
⁵ This akshara may also be read as vā.
⁶ The portion of the plate bearing the last letter has peeled off, and possibly dēvasya after the name may have been intended.
⁷ The plates appear to have sailed off to the British Museum along with the four other copper-plates which are stated to have been presented
to it by the Rājā of Rēwā, for which see Ind. Ant., Vol. XVII, p. 244. n. 1. And as their present provenance is not definitely known, I prefer
to call them after the name of its find-spot, following Mirashi.