No. 1. A Darщi plate of Pallava copper-plate grant.
| E. Hultzsch, - EI, I, No. XLV. |
| This fragment was found lying in a tobacco field at the village of Darщi [Mr. Sewell's Lists of Antiquities, vol. I, p. 135.] in the Nellur district of the Madras Presidency and is now in the Madras Museum. It consists of the beginning of a Sanskrit inscription engraved on one side of a copper-plate, which measures 8 1/4 by 2 5/8 inches. The remaining plates of the grant have not been found. On the left of the inscribed side of the preserved plate is a hole for the lost ring, which must have borne the royal seal. The name of the king, who issued the grant, is lost; but the plate contains the name of his great-grandfather, Щrи-Vиra-Kоrcha-varman [The correct Sanskrit form of this name, Vиra-Kуrchavarman, occurs in a Pallava copper-plate grant at Kaщakудi near Kаraikkаl (Karikal), extracts from which were recently published at Paris by Professor Vinson. I am endeavouring to obtain a loan ot the original of this important inscription, which appears to establish the connection between the earlier and the later Pallavas.], whose laudatory epithets agree literally with those attributed to the Pallava kings Skandavarman I and Skandavarman II, respectively, in two published copper-plate grants [Indian Antiquary, vol. V, p. 51; and vol. VIII, p. 168]. The plate ends with the first syllables of a compound with which, in the same two grants, the description of the next king opens. This close agreement and the archaic alphabet of the fragment leave no doubt, that it belongs to one of those ancient Pallava kings, whose grants are dated from Palakkada [Ibid. vol. V, p. 52. Dr. Purnell's identification of Palakkada with the modern Pulicat (South-Indian Palaeography, second edition, p. 36) is untenable, as the latter name is an Anglo-Indian corruption of Paжavевkадu, 'the old forest of vеl trees'.ъ], Daщanapura[Ibid. vol V, p. 154.], and Kагchиpura [Ibid. vol VIII, p. 169]. This view is further confirmed by the first line of the plate, according to which the king's order was dated 'from the prosperous and victorious residence of Daщanapura.' (EH) |
TEXT.
1. svasti jitambhagavatа [ll*] щrиmadvijaya-daщanapur-аdhiштаnаt-pa-
2. ramabrahmaнyasya svabаhubalаrjjitor-jjita-kшаtra-taponi-
3. dher-vvidhivihita-sarvvamaryyаdasya sthitisthitasy-аmitаtma-
4. no mahаrаjasya щrиvиrakorccavarmmaнaх prapautraх[ax]ёbhyarcchi-
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L. 1. Read -штhаnаtpa- (EH)
L. 4. Read -abhyarci- (EH)