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

164 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
adorned by the feet of the nymphs of heaven; and as long as (the god) Vishṇu bears the
radiant (goddess) Śrī upon (his) breast which is like a dark-blue cloud;—so long (this)
chief of [stone]-temples shall stand upon the delightful summit of the hill!
No. 38; PLATE XXIV.
MALIYA COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE
MAHARAJA DHARASENA II.
THE YEAR 252.
THIS inscription,¹ which was originally brought to notice by me in 1884, in the Ind. Ant.
Vol. XIII. p. 160 ff., is from some copper-plates that were found at Mâliyâ,² the chief
town of the Mâliyâ Mahâl or Sub-Division of the Junâgaḍh State in the Kâṭhiâwâḍ Peninsula
in the Bombay Presidency. The original plates are, I understand, in the possession of the
Junâgaḍh Darbâr. I obtained them, for examination, through the kindness of the Dîwân,
Mr. Haridas Viharidas.
The plates, which are inscribed on one side only, are two in number, each measuring
about 11⅛″ by 7¾″. The edges of them were raised into rims, to protect the writing; and
the inscription is in a state of almost perfect preservation throughout. The plates are of
fair thickness; but the letters are deep, and shew through very distinctly on the backs of
them. The engraving is well executed; but, as usual, the interiors of the letters shew
marks of the working of the engraver's tool throughout.—The plates are connected by two
rings, passing through holes in the lower part of the first plate, and the upper part of the
second. Both of the rings had already been cut, when the grant came under my notice.
One of them is a plain copper ring, roughly circular in shape, about 5/16″ thick and 1¼″ in
diameter. The other is of the same thickness, but of an irregular oval shape, as is customary
with the rings of the Valabhî seals. The ends of it are secured in a seal, the front of which
is roughly oval, about 1¾″ by 2¼″, and which has, in relief on a countersunk surface, at the top,
a bull, recumbent to the proper right, the usual emblem on the Valabhî seals; and below it,
separated by two horizontal lines, the legend Śrî-Bhaṭakkaḥ, for Śrî-Bhaṭârkkah, i.e. "the
illustrious Bhaṭârka."—The weight of the two plates is 3 lbs. 1 oz., and of the two rings and
the seal, 12½ oz.; total, 3 lbs. 13½ oz.—The size of the letters varies from ⅛″ to 5/16″. The
characters belong to the southern class of alphabets; but they include, e.g. in chaḍa, line
3, khadga, line 10, and ḍombhi, line 24, a separate form of the lingual ḍ, as distinct from the
dental d, borrowed from the northern alphabet. They furnish a very good specimen of
¹ The inscriptions of this family that have already been discovered, are too numerous to be all
included in the present volume; and they will, it is hoped, be some day disposed of by themselves in
a separate collection. Meanwhile, the family is concerned so closely in the history of the period with
which the present volume deals, that my book would be incomplete without a specimen or two of the
Valabhî grants, as an accompaniment to the necessary historical chapter. I therefore give two of the in-
scriptions of this family; the present one, to illustrate the standard form according to which most of
the earlier charters were drafted; and the next, partly as an illustration of the form of the later char-
ters, and partly because it is the latest inscription of the family at present known of, and introduces
the well-known and important name of Dhrûbhaṭa or Dhruvabhaṭa, as a title of Śîlâditya VII.
² The 'Malia and Mallia' of maps, &c.; about twenty-three miles south by west of Junâgaḍh. It
is also called 'Mâliyâ-Haṭṭi,' to distinguish it from another Mâliyâ, called 'Mâliyâ-Miâna,' in the
north of Kâṭhiâwâḍ.