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South Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY GURJARAS They are two copper-plates, each being inscribed on one side only measuring 10″ by 6″. They contain at the top two round holes, about ¼″ in diameter, for the rings which must have held them together. But no ring or seal, if there was any, was discovered. The inscription is in a state of excellent preservation. The record consists of twenty-nine lines, of which fourteen are inscribed on the first and the remaining fifteen on the second plate. The average size of letters is .15″. The characters are of the western variety of the southern alphabets, and resemble those of the last grant which, as we shall see, was written by the same writer and on the same day. Still, curious as it might appear, there are some minor differences in their characters. For instance in medial (long) ī is generally cursive in the preceding record, while its prevailing form in this grant consists of two circles one inside the other; see prakāśīkrita, 1.6, Kshīrasara, 1.9, etc.; in the former record th was marked by a notch in the base in all cases, while in this it generally appears with a ringlet in its loop, though the notched form also occurs sporadically ; as instances of the former type, see dīn-ānāth-,1.4, manōrath-, 1.5, etc., and of the latter, see dharm-ārttha-, 1.24 ; b was generally triangular in the preceding grant, but is rectangular almost everywhere in this; see e.g., kar-āvabōdhita, 1.1, bahala, 1.7, etc. The sign-manual is in the northern current-hand character as in other inscriptions of Dadda II. The language is Sanskrit and the text is almost1 an exact copy of the preceding record, differing chiefly in respect of the object of the grant. The orthography shows the same peculiarities as in the preceding grant, for both the records were written by the same scribe. One additional peculiarity may, however, be noticed here, viz. the doubling of the sibilant ś after r in samanudarśśayaty-, against Pānini, VIII, 4, 49.
The Plates were issued from Nāndīpura by Dadda who had acquired the Pañchamahāśabda and who calls himself Praśāntarāga, the son of Vītarāga in his sign-manual. He is, therefore, identical with Dadda II of the Early Gurjara dynasty. The inscription records the grant of a field requiring as seed grains ten prasthas of paddy by the larger measure. The field was situated on the south-western boundary of the village Kshīrasara in the vishaya of Sangamakhētaka. The donee was the same as in the preceding grant, viz. the Brāhmana Sūrya of the Bharadvāja gōtra and the Vājasanēya-Mādhyandina śākhā, who had emigrated from the town of Daśapura and was then residing at Kshīrasara. The Present grant was made for the same purpose and on the same day as the preceding and as stated already, the scribe was also the same, viz., the Sāndhivigrahika Rēva. One additional detail which does not occur in any other grant of Dadda II is the mention of the dūtaka Karka who, like the dūtaka of Ranagraha’s grant, bore the title Bhōgikapālaka The date of the record, viz., the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Vaiśākha in the year 392 is given both in words and in numerical symbols. It would correspond, for the expired Kalachuri year 392, to the 20th April 642 A.C. as stated before2 It does not admit of verification.
The geographical names Nandipura, Dasapura, Sangamakhetaka and
Kshirasara have already been identified.3 1As minor differences may be noted samanudarśśayaly=astu of the present record in place of
samanuvarnya bōdhayaty=astu etc. in line 9 of the last grant, and sa-śībaram in line 12, nothing corresponding to which occurs in the last grant. The present inscription again mentions a dūtaka who does |
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