North Indian Inscriptions

SUPPLEMENTARY INSCRIPTIONS

No. 198 ; PLATE CLXXIV
RĀJPUR COPPER-PLATE CHARTER OF THE PARAMĀRA RAṆADHAVALA [ Vikrama ] Years 1148 and 1127

THE present charter is the earliest record of the time of the Paramāra king Naravarman, yet found and issued by his subordinate chief Raṇadhavala whose name is revealed from it for the first time. It is engraved on three copper-plates which were received as a treasure-trove find, in 1958, in the Collectorate at Khargōne in the West Nēmāḍ District of Madhya Pradesh. As far as information is available, the plates were found by a peasant, in course of ploughing his field at Rājpur, the principal town of a tehsīl in the district ; and very recently they were acquired by the Central Museum at Indore. When received, they were considerably corroded, with most of the letters choaked with verdigris. With great care they were cleaned by Shri R. S. Garg, the Curator of the Museum, who also deciphered a major part of the record ; and finding it important, placed the plates at my disposal for critically editing the inscription, which is done here from the originals, owing my thankfulness to the Curator.

Each of the plates measures 28 cms. broad by 19.5 cms. high, but the height of the third one exceeds that of the other two by .3 cm. Their rims are slightly thickened (.3 cm.), to protect the writing. A small circular hole (dia. 1 cm.) in the middle of the lower border of the first plate and in the upper border of the second and the third, so as to disturb the continuity of the writing, shows that they were held together by a ring, which is not now forthcoming. The total weigh of the plates is 2800 grams. The lower right corner of the third plate is occupied by a roughly-engraved figure of Garuḍa in human form, kneeling and facing left, with folded hands, with letters Garuḍa, engraved in Nāgarī, near its face. The figure occupies a space 5 cms. high by 4 cms. broad. The average height of the letters engraved on the plates is 1 cm., except on the third plate which shows letters slightly bigger in size, and sparsely written. The last of the lines consists of the sign manual of the king Naravarman, and the one just before it is in bigger letters which I am unable to make out.

The inscription comprises 56 lines of writing, fourteen of which are inscribed on the inner side of the first plate, fifteen on either side of the second, and twelve on the inner side of the third plate. The engraving is shallow, and thus the letters do not show through on the other side of the plates, which are rather thick. They are slovenly formed, and besides that, a number of them are uncouth in shape ; some of them were also distorted by the engravers who committed mistakes of omission and commission in cutting them. For example, grāma, the first two syllables in l. 28, are cut as mnāṁ ; the consonant of the second akshara in Kauṇḍinya, l. 26, as ga ; the second letter in vaṁśa, l. 49, as ra, by omitting the middle horizontal stroke, and in the same line pa is engraved as sha, and ma as na. In this respect, the record shares the peculiarities of the Kadambapadraka grant of Naravarman.^[1] Similar expressions appearing in some other charters are no doubt helpful in deciphering a great part of the inscription, but this device fails to vouchsafe the correct reading of names occuring in the record, for example, in l. 27. Besides this, owing to mutilation, the reading of some of the letters remains uncertain, and hence there are a few lacunae in the transcript given below.

The alphabet is Nāgarī, which is regular for the period and locality to which the record belongs. For example, the initial short i is formed by placing two loops side by side and subscribed by the sign of short u, as in iti, l. 24 the letter k loses its loop when subscribed by the mātrā of short u, or ṛi, or by a conjunct ; the signs of ch, dha and v are distinct from each other ; and the conjunct ; ṇṇ is found as ll.

The language is Sanskrit ; and except two stanzas in the beginning, two in the middle, and eight in the end, which are all almost the same as generally to be found in the Paramāra charters, the record is in prose throughout. As regards orthography, we may note the identity of the signs of b and v, the use of the pṛishṭha-mātrā with a very few exceptions, the interchange
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^[1] Above, No. 34.