गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 22, PLATE XIII. 101
reading of the texts.—In 1861, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. XXX. p. 10 ff., Dr. Fitz-
Edward Hall published his reading of the text, and a translation of it, from the original
plates.—And in 1879, in the Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. IX. p. 11 f., No. 2, General
Cunningham, in partially reprinting Dr. Hall’s translation, substituted a close approxima-
tion to the correct interpretation of the date, agreeing with Professor Wilson and differing
from Dr. Hall; and also gave a lithograph of the passage containing the date (id. Plate
iv. No. 2.)
The inscription is on another set of copper-plates that were found, with the plates
containing the inscription of the same Mahârâja Hastin of the year 156, No. 21 above,
somewhere in the valley near the village of Khôh,¹ in the Nâgaudh State in the Baghêl-
khaṇḍ division of Central India. They were originally deposited in the Library of the
Sanskrit College at Benares, but were transferred, first to the Provincial Museum at
Allahâbâd, and then to the Provincial Museum at Lucknow, where they now are; but
without their ring and seal, which were lost during the transfers.
The plates, which are inscribed on one side only, are three in number. The first two
measure about 7½" by 5⅝", and the third, which was evidently added as an afterthought,
when it was found that the inscription could not be completed on the front of the second
and that the back of it was not suitable for engraving, about 5⅝" by 2⅜". They are quite
smooth, the edges being neither fashioned thicker, nor raised into rims. Except,
however, for the small piece broken away at the beginning of the third plate, the writing is
in a state of excellent preservation throughout. The plates are rather thin; and the letters,
being rather deeply engraved, shew through so plainly on the backs of them that even
vowel-marks can be read there; and it is evidently owing to this, that the inscription was
finished on a third and smaller plate, instead of on the back of the second. The engraving
is well executed; but the interiors of the majority of the letters shew, as usual, marks of
the working of the engraver’s tool.—There is a hole in the upper part² of each plate for a
ring, with a seal attached to it; but the ring and seal are not now forthcoming. From
the original accounts, the seal appears to have had on it the legend Śrî-Mahârâja-
Hastinaḥ, “of the illustrious Mahârâja Hastin,” as on the seal of his grant of the year
191, No. 23 below, Plate xiv.—The weight of the three plates is 1 lb. 1¾ oz.—The average
size of the letters is between ⅛" and ¼". The characters belong to the northern class
of alphabets; and the present inscription, with the following, from No. 24, Plate xvA., to
No. 31, Plate xx., illustrates what may be called the standard alphabet, with northern
characteristics, of Central India, from towards the end of the fifth to the middle of the
sixth century A.D. In sûryadatta, line 30, on the one hand, and, on the other, in kâryya,
line 20, and kuryyât, line 21, we have further illustrations of the two methods of writing r
in combination with a following y, on which I have commented at page 94 above. In
brahmachâriṇe and cha, line 8, châṭa, line 16, and dânâch, line 23, we have a form of ch
which belongs properly to a somewhat later period, and to the southern alphabets; but
which is perhaps indicative of the current and non-official form of the letter in Central
India in this period.—The language is Saṁskṛit; and, except for the benedictive and
imprecatory verses in lines 22 to 28, the inscription is in prose throughout It has been
¹ See page 93 above, and note 3.
² When the rings are arranged as in these plates, it is customary to find the ring-hole in the bottom
of the first plate and the top of the second. But all the grants of this family, and of the Mahârâjas
of Uchchakalpa, as far as Plate xx., have the ring-holes in the top of each plate as here.