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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 31, PLATE XX. [Right-aligned: 135]

No. 31; PLATE XX.

KHOH COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE

MAHARAJA SARVANATHA.

THE YEAR 214.

THIS inscription,—which was first brought to notice by General Cunningham, in 1879,
in the Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. IX. pp. 14 and 16, Nos 6 and 8, where he published a
translation of it,¹ with a lithograph of the passage containing the date (id. Pl. iv. No. 8),—
is on another set of copper-plates that appear to have been found somewhere in the valley
near the village of **Khôh,**² in the Nâgaudh State in the Baghelkhaṇḍ division of Central
India. I obtained the original plates, for examination, from the possession of General
Cunningham.
The plates, which are inscribed on one side only, are two in number, the first measuring
about 8⅝" by 6", and the second 8⅝" by 5⅞". The edges of them are fashioned slightly
thicker than the inscribed surfaces, with corresponding depressions inside them, so as
to serve as rims to protect the writing; and, though the plates are here and there worn quite
through by rust, the inscription is in a state of very good preservation almost throughout.
The plates are rather thin; and the letters shew through on the backs of them so clearly
that in many places they can be read there. The engraving is good; but, as usual, the
interiors of the letters shew marks of the working of the engraver's tool throughout.—In
the upper part of each plate, there is a hole for a ring to connect them. But the ring, with
the seal attached to it, is not now forthcoming; having been abstracted by slitting the
plates from the ring-holes to the edges.—The weight of the two plates is 1 lb. 2 oz.—The
average size of the letters is about ⅛". The characters belong to the northern class
of alphabets, and are of the same type with those of the Kârîtalâî grant of the Mahârâja
Jayanâtha of the year 174, No. 26 above, page 117, and Plate xvi. They include
the rather rare jh ajjhita, line 5.—The language is Sanskrit; and, except for the
benedictive and imprecatory verses in lines 20 to 27, the inscription is in prose through-
out. From a linguistic point of view, we have to notice, in utpannaka, line 9; utpadya-
mânaka, lines 9 and 16; and kâritaka, line 11, the affix ka, which I have commented
on at page 69 above.—In respect of orthography, we have to notice (1) the use of the
upadhmânîya, in saḥ=pañchabhir, line 18; (2) the use of the guttural nasal, instead of the
anusvâra, before ś and h, in vaṅśa, line 16, and saṅhitâ, line 19; and (3) the doubling
of g and t, in conjunction with a following r, in viggrahika, line 29, and puttra, lines 1 to
5; but not in putra-pautra, line 12.
The inscription is one of the Mahârâja Śarvanâtha; and the charter recorded in it
is issued from the city or hill called Uchchakalpa. The date of the writing of the char-
ter is given, in words, as the year two hundred and fourteen (A.D. 533-34), and the sixth
day, without any specification of the fortnight, of the month Pausha (December-January).
It is apparently a Vaishṇava inscription; the object of it being to record the sanction of the

¹ But he wrongly attached No. 30 above, with the date of 197, to the first plate of this grant, and
took the second plate of this grant as the continuation of No. 29 above.
² See page 93 above, and note 3.