284 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA. [Vol. VIII.
No. 28. — BETUL PLATES OP SAMKSHOBHA;
THE GUPTA YEAR 199.
By Hira Lal, B.A., Extra Assistant Commissioner; Nagpur.
These plates were found by me in the possession of Sahib Lal Singh, Malguzar of Betnl in tne district of the Bame name in the Central Provinces, in March 1905. Sahib Lal Singh, though belonging to an old respectable family, is a Kurmi — a prominent cultivating caste of Northern India, who of course are not entitled to accept any charitable gifts. The plates clearly do not belong to his family, and Sahib Lal Singh is unable to explain how it came by them. His forefathers belonged to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and came to Betul five generations ago. They left their native place in the Unao district in Oudh about 180 years ago and are believed to have lived in the Hoshang&bad, Narsinghpur and Nagpur districts. Apparently they brought the plates with them, having obtained them somewhere in Narsinghpur which adjoins Jabalpur.
These are two copper-plates, with a hole ( T V ^ diameter) in each for the ring or seal, which is lost. The first plate measures 71" by b$" and the second 7f * by 6£", the weight of each being 12 ozs. 6 drs. and 13 ozs. 17 grs. respectively. Both the plates are quite smooth, suffi- ciently thick, and in an excellent state of preservation. They are inscribed on one aide only, and some of the letters show through on the backs of them ; and but for a fault in the second plate, which has caused a hole " in diameter in the last line, obliterating portions of the numerical symbols of the year (which has been fortunately stated in words in the beginning), the inscrip- tion throughout is very legible. I have deciphered the text from the original plates, an impres- sion of which was very kindly made for me by Mr. H. Cousens. At Prof. Hultzsch's instance Mr. H. Krishna Sastri prepared fresh impressions, which are reproduced on the accompanying Plate.
The average size of the letters is about The letters are smaller — about at the beginning of each plate. They gradually grow bigger, attaining the highest size— about at the end.
The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets. Final forms of m occur in 1L 13, 17, 25, and of t in 11. 21 and 25. Orthographical peculiarities are the use of n before ia in 11. 12 and 14, and of b for t? in sambatsara (11. 2, 8 (twice), 29) and paribrdjaka (1. 5). The letter t is doubled in gottra (1. 5, but not in 1. 15), puttra (11. 6, 16, 28), pauttra (1. 16) and O p%ttror= (1. 12). The last line contains the numerical symbols for 100, 10, 90 and 9, the two last of which, as stated before, are partially obliterated. The language is Sanskrit prose, excepting four benediotive and imprecatory veraes quoted in 11. 21-27.
The inscription is one of the Parivrajaka Mahdrdja Samkshdbha and is dated* in the year 199 of the Gupta era (A.D. 518-19), in the Mahamargafilrsha-samvatsara, on the tenth tithi of the month Karttika, without specifying the fortnight and the week-day. Another grant of the samo king, which was found near Khdh by General Cunningham in 1879 and is dated in the Gupta year 209 (A.D. 528-29), was republished by Dr. Fleet in his Oupta Inscriptions, p. 112 ff. The text of both inscriptions is very similar, and both were written by the same isvarad&sa.
The object of the inscription is to record the grant of half of the village Praetaravataka and a quarter of Dvaravatika in the province of Tripurl by the Mahdrdja Samkshobha to the Brahman Bhanusvamin of the Bharadvaja gotra. The value of the inscription chiefly lies in the mention of geographical names, as, with regard to the history of the donor himself, it adds nothing new to what is given in the Kh&h plates. The genealogy of the Mahdrdja Samkshobha in both
