Page:Epigraphia Indica vol 6.djvu/433

 No. 36.] RANASTIPUNDI GRANT OF VIMALADITYA. 347 villages and hamlets (P), the married couple may proceed on the roads on horse-back, and that afterwards when, at the end of the marriage festival, they place a pair of valuable cloths at the feet of the king and prostrate themselves, betel will be given (to them) in a golden vessel, (as) handed down by old custom. (L. 98.) " This gift must be assiduously protected by the king3 descended from our family." [ W. 42-48 contain the usual admonitions to future rulers.] (L. 108.) The djnapti of this edict, which was given in the seventeenth year of the pros- perous and victorious reign, (was) the commander of the camp ; l the composer Viddayabhatta ; (and) the writer Penn&ch&rya.

Professor Kielhorn kindly contributes the following remarks on the date of the accession of R&jar&ja-Chddaganga (above, p. 345, verse 34). '• The date is irregular for &aka-Sainvat 1006, both expired and current In ^aka-Samvat 1006 expired the full-moon tithi of Jyaishtha ended 15 h. 27 m. after mean sunrise of Wednes- day, the 22nd May A.D. 1084, when the nakshatra was Jy6sh$h&, by the equal space system for 19 h. 3 m., by the Brahma-Siddhanta for lh. 58 m., and according to Garga for 6h. 34 m., after mean sunrise. Simha was lagna from 4 h. 32 m. to 6 h. 41 m. after true sunrise. " In Saka-Samvat 1006 current the same tithi ended 20 h. 36 m. after mean sunrise of Friday, the 2nd June A.D. 1083, when the nakshatra by the equal space system only was JydshthA, for 8h. 32 m. after mean sunrise (while it was Mula by the Brahma- Siddh&nta and according to Garga). Simha was lagna from 3 h. 51 m. to 6 h. m. after true sunrise. "The date would be irregular also for Saka-Samvat 1005 current and 1007 expired."

The copper-plates on which the subjoined inscription is engraved were discovered about 70 years ago while quarrying earth for bricks in the fields of the ancestors of a ryot in the Amalapuram taluka of the Godavari district, and are now in the possession of Valavala Jagganna who lives at Amalapuram. They were received from the Collector of Godavari through the Government of Madras in 1899 and will have to be returned to the owner. Dr. Hultzsch has kindly permitted me to publish them.

The plates are five in number and were strung on a ring, which had not yet been out when they were received. The ring measures about 6 4* in diameter and about f * in thickness. Its ends are secured in a four-petalled flower, which forms the base of a circular seal of about 3J" diameter. The seal bears, in relief on a countersunk surface, the legend &ri-Tribhuvandikku4a. Below the legend is an eight-petalled flower, and above it a running boar facing the proper left. In front of the boar is an elephant-goad ; behind it the orescent of the moon ; and above it the sun flanked by two chauris. The breadth of the plates is 10 J*, and their height 5£". Their edges are raised into rims for protecting the writing, with the exception of the first side of the first plate, which is blank, and of the second side of the fifth plate, which bears only two lines of writing. The writing is on the whole in a state of good preservation, but a number of plaoes are damaged by verdigris. 1 With kafakddhipa compare kaiakddkirdjm, etc.; above, Vol. IV. p. 800, note 1, and Vol. V. p. 181, laft line. 2 y2 Digitized by Google