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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 55, PLATE XXXIV 235
TRANSLATION.
Vyâghradêva, who meditates on the feet of the Mahârâja of the Vâkâtakas, the
illustrious Prithivîshêna, has made (this) for the sake of the religious merit of (his)
··ents.
No. 55; PLATE XXXIV.
CHAMMAK COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE
MAHARAJA PRAVARASENA II.
THIS inscription was discovered about 1868, and,—the original plates having been
obtained by Major H. Szczepanski, and forwarded by him to Dr. John Wilson, of Bom-
bay,—was first brought to notice in 1879, by Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji's reading of the
text, published in Notes on the Bauddha Rock-Temples of Ajanta,¹ p. 54 ff.—And in 1883,
Dr. G. Bühler, C.I.E., published his own reading of the text, and a translation of it, in the
Archæol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 116 ff., and also, accompanied by a lithograph of the
plates, but not of the seal, in the Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 239 ff.
The inscription is on some copper-plates that were found in ploughing a field at
Chammak,² the ancient Charmâṅka of the inscription, a village about four miles
south-west of Ilichpur,³ the chief town of the Ilichpur District in the Commissioner-
ship of East Berar, in the Haidarâbâd Assigned Districts. The original plates, which I
obtained for examination from Dr. Burgess, are now, I understand, again in the posses-
sion of Major Szczepanski.
The plates, of which the first and last are inscribed on one side only, are seven in
number, each measuring from 7⅜" to 7½" by from 3½" to 3⅝". They are quite smooth, the
edges of them having been neither fashioned thicker, nor raised into rims. A few of the
letters on the first and last plates have been damaged by rust; but the rest of the in-
scription is in a state of excellent preservation. The plates are fairly thick and substan-
tial; and the letters, which are not very deep, do not shew through on the reverse sides at
all. The engraving is good; but, as usual, the interiors of the letters shew here and
there marks of the working of the engraver's tool.—Towards the top of each plate, there
is a hole for a ring to connect them. The ring is circular, about ¼" thick and 3⅝" in
diameter. It was not soldered into the socket of a seal; but the ends of it were flattened
off, as if to overlap and fasten with a pin or bolt; there is, however, no hole in them to
shew that they were ever actually secured in this way. The seal⁴ is a flat disc of copper,
rising slightly towards the centre, about ⅛" thick and 2⅞" in diameter. To the centre of
the back of it, there is soldered a small ring, by which it slides on the larger ring men-
tioned above. Across the surface of the seal, there is the legend, in four lines, of
¹ No. 9 of the separate pamphlets of the Archæological Survey of Western India.
² The ‘Chamuck’ of the Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 54. Lat. 21° 12' N.; Long. 77° 31' E.—In Notes
on the Bauddha Rock-Temples of Ajanta, p. 54, the plates are said to have been obtained from
Sâgar in the Central Provinces. And in Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 234, they are called the Ilichpur grant.
But in Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 116, it is stated explicitly that they were found in a ploughed
field at Chammak.
³ The ‘Ellichpur’ of maps, &c.
⁴ See Plate xxxiiiC.
2 G 2.