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A Copper-plate Grant from Bandá. - By RAJENDRALÁLA

MITRA, LL.D., C.I.E.

(With a plate.)

The Society is indebted to Mr. A. Cadell, Asst. Magistrate, Bandá, in the N. W. Provinces, for the sight of a Copper-plate found in Parganah Augási of the Bandá district. The plate measures 16+ inches by 10, and is in an excellent state of preservation. (See plate VI.) It is a hammered one; very rough on the outer face, but moderately smooth on the inscribed side. Round its edges slips of metal have been very roughly and clumsily rivetted on to form a raised rim for the purpose of preventing the inscription from being easily rubbed off. At the middle of the lower edge, close by the rim, is a round hole, half an inch in diameter. It was intended for a ring which bore the seal of the donor, and perhaps also held together two plates, one of which is missing. If a second plate did once exist, it was intended only as a cover for the first and bore no inscription, for the latter contains the whole of a deed of conveyance, with a colophon giving the name of the writer and engraver of the record, and hitherto no document of the kind has been found which contains any thing after the name of the engraver. The record is inscribed longitudinally, and comprises nineteen lines, the first four of which have a break in the middle, caused by an outline figure of the goddess Rájalakshmi with two elephants standing on expanded lotuses, and pouring water on her head. The writing is of the Kutila type, but slender in body, and verging to the modern Nagari character. It records the grant of 'ten ploughs' of land in the village of Ramuradá, which is situated in the circle of Sudáli, to a Brahmaņa named Gabhanta S'arman, the son of Jáţa, the grandson of Sátti, and great-grandson of Vapana, a member of the Vájasaneyi school of the Bháradvája gotra, having the threefold Pravara of Bharadvája, Angirasa, Várhaspatya, and an inhabitant of the village of Dhakari. The boundary of the plot is given in detail, and the date of the gift was Monday, the 5th of the waxing moon in the month of Magha, Samvat 1190 = A. C. 1135.

The donor was Madanavarma Deva, a devout follower of Siva. His immediate predecessor was Prithvívarma Deva, who had succeeded Kirtivarma Deva.

The first monument of this line of princes was brought to the notice of the Society by Lieutenant William Price, in 1813. It was a large inscribed stone found on a rocky hill in the vicinity of the town of Mau, about ten miles from Chhattarpur. The record was in a bad state of preservation, and the transcript and translation of it published in the 'Asiatic Researches'* * Vol. XII, pp. 359 et seq.

K

[No. 1, are full of lacune. It comprises the history of nine princes with the names of their ministers.

The second record was found by Capt. T. S. Burt in 1838. It too was an inscribed slab, which had been detached from one of several temples at Khajráha, nine kos from Chhattarpur, which is on the high road from Saiyar and Hamirpur, close by the fortified town of Rajgarh, on the right bank of the Kám river, S. W from Chhattarpur. It gives the names of six predecessors of Dhanga.*

The third was communicated to me by Major-General Cunningham, who found it at Khajráha.† It was a short record of 13 lines, but it was of value in settling the date of the dynasty on a sure footing. In commenting upon it I pointed out the relation it bore to the two preceding monuments, and the results deducible from a reading of the three inscriptions together. The conclusion I then arrived at regarding the date of Madanavarma, the last prince of the line, was, that he must have lived about the middle of the twelfth century. The exact date given by the copper-plate now under notice is Samvat 1190 = A. D. 1135. The name of the immediate predecessor of Prithvivarma, the father of Madana, in Lieutenant Price's inscription, is Sallakshanavarma; but this appears to be an alias or title, the real name being Kirtivarma in the copper-plate. Putting the names found in the four inscriptions together with such corrections as the several records have helped me to make, I arrive at the following genealogy. Altogether we have sixteen names. Of these, documentary evidence exists for the dates of three; the 7th king, Dhánga, being assigned by two records to Samvat 1011 and 1019 respectively; the 13th by one to Samvat 1173; and the 16th by another to 1190. For the rest we have to depend upon averages. For reasons assigned in my paper on the Khajráha inscriptions, the earlier reigns may be taken to have been long, but some of the later must have been very short. Dhanga is said to have lived 109 summers, and then to have resigned his life at the confluence of the Yamuna and the Ganges, and this led Mr. Sutherland and those who wrote after him to suppose that the prince had committed suicide. Such is, however, not the inevitable meaning of the passage. To this day the ordinary civil way of announcing a death is to say, so-and-so has surrendered his life to the holy river so-and-so or the sacred pool (Kshetra) so-and-so, and the inscription has probably adopted the same mode of expression.

1. Nannuka, of the Chandrártreya race A. D., II. Vágyati or Vákpati, son of I,

III. Víyaya, son of II,

...

IV. Váhila or Ráhila, son of III,....

.....

......

.....

746

771

771

798

898

823

...

823

818

* Journal, As. Soc., VIII, p. 159.

.........

† Ibid., XXXII, pp. 273f.

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IX. Vidyádhara Deva, Minister-Sivanáma, son of last,
X. Viyayyapála, Minister-Mahipala, son of last,
XI. Kirtivarma Deva, Minister-Ananta,

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1024 1045

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XII. Varma Deva, Minister-Yogeśvara, son of last,... XIII. Jayavarma Deva, Minister-ditto,.........

1045 1065

1110 1120

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1130 1150

XVI. Madanavarma Deva, Minister-Gadádhara,.........

The annexed translation of the record has been prepared for me by my young friend Bábu Durgáráma Basu, Pleader, High Court of Calcutta.

Translation of an inscription from Parganah Augási, Bandá.

May this be auspicious!

The dynasty of the kings of the lunar race, glorious as the moon on the forehead of the god of the universe, (Viśveśvara) gladdening the universe, prospers. In that noble and flourishing dynasty, rendered resplendent by heroes like Jayaśakti and Vijayaśakti, the king of Kálanjara, the fortunate Madanavarma Deva, the highly revered, the great king over great kings, the supreme lord, the devout worshipper of Siva, successor of the highly revered, the great king over great kings, the supreme lord, the fortunate Prithvivarma Deva, who was the successor of the highly revered, the great king over great kings, the supreme lord, the fortunate Kirtivarma Deva, reigns supremeHe, having subdued his enemies by his irresistible majesty, untroubled holds the earth like a married wife, and thereby keeps his intellect unclouded, and his conscience unsullied. He commands all his relatives, Kayasthas, and other great men inhabiting the village of Rámuradá within the district of Sudáli :---"Be it known unto you that, on Monday, on the day of the full moon, in the month of Magha, of the Samvat year eleven hundred and ninety (in figures 15th Sudi, Magh, Samvat 1190) I have, after having duly bathed in holy water, after offering oblations to the gods, having worshipped the sun and the lord of Bhavání (Siva) and after offering oblations to the fire, for the promotion of virtue of my parents and of myself, with water held in my hand and consecrated with kuśa grass, and having pronounced the word Svasti (let this be auspicious), bestowed, for the period of the duration of the sun and the moon, on the Brahmaņa Gabhanta S'armá, son of Jáța, grandson of Sátti, great-grandson of Bapan, of the Vájasaneya branch (Sakhá) of the Bharadvája gotra having Bharadvája, An

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