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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

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By him. In the circle of his vassals [there is Kanna Sámanta] whose titles are Prosperity, he who has obtained the fire great words, the Mahāsā manta, belored of cictory, death to the forces of his enemy, disperser “ of hostile fellow-rassals as a gust of wind is of the clouds, a lion among his elephant like inimical Sámantas, the Bentekāra, + Magarakirti navasāra, the Bantarabhāraş deroteeſ of Rerana, ............" pure in his family, the chief friend of the good worshipper of Truth like the son of Yama,” Turagarevata, fit brave as a lion, propitiator of the feet of Shrimat Tribhuvana Malladera, -Kanna Sáman ta [to wit]. This is a benediction for him:-Victory to Shri Kanna Sámanta, devoted to the worship of the feet of Hara, who manipulates the breasts of the Princess of the Låtas, and who is ever death to his enemies.

[MARCH 1, 1872.

an assured by Prof. Keru Lakshman Chhatre that the calculations by which he arrived at these results were carefully inade, and admit of no doubt as to their accuracy. If, then, the date given in the grant be according to the old Vikraina era, it corresponds to the 30th of September 51, B.C. (N.S.) But to set against this coincidence, there is, in the first place, the appearance of the characters which is decidedly unodern.

In fact with the exception of the letters

3, UT, VH, IT, ºff. ST. g., UT, T, T. F., and I, and as many compound letters, the whole of the inscription may be read with little difficulty by any one acquainted only with the modern form of the Devanāgari alphabet used in the Dekhan. I

have seen, in the district of Kalādgi, several inscrip tions in Devanāgarī characters about ten or eleven centuries old, and I invariably found the characters

To him are sold{# for the full consideration and delivered (literally given) the twelve villages of Váycad (, the village called Takkaliká being ex cepted from them. His (Munja's) ministers [being] Shri Khambhayya Náyaka, Madhukari Näyaka the

present a much more ancient appearance than those in the present inscription. Of course it will not

minister entrusted with War and Peace, Bhammay

found that one and the same alphabet presents con siderable variety in the shape of its letters as used in different parts of the country even at the same time, and that individual peculiarities of a writer's or engraver's style of writing may account for a good deal of variety of form. But the forms of the

ya Nayaka, Nimbaya Nāyaka, in their presence, having caused this copper-plate grant to be written by Nannapai, the assistant to the Minister of War and Peace, King Shri Munja by his own hand deli vered it to Kanna Sámanta. [Now] that stanza : “Whoever should resume land whether given by himself or by others lives as an insect in filth for sixty thousand years.' Remarks. At first sight the words Shri Vikramakála Sam vatsareshu shatsu atiteshu saptme dundubhisainwat sare prarartamáne might be supposed to indicate the Samrat era of Vikrama, and the inscription

states that the 6th year of the era having passed, and the seventh having commenced on the first day of the Shukla half of the month of Kārtika, the grant was made on that day. Now the Samvat year

always be safe in assigning dates to ancient inscrip. tions and documents, to be guided entirely by the appearance of the characters, when it is often

letters in the stone inscriptions of the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries after Christ, still extant in the Kalādgi district, which formed part of the Chālukya territories, are so much more ancient than those of the present Devanāgari alphabet, and even than those of this copper-plate, that if the latter

really belonged to the first century before Christ, its letters should be of far more ancient forms

than those of the stone inscriptions. In the second place, the King of the Chá lukya dynasty, in whose reign the grant is stated

to have been made is well known, and belongs to the branch of that dynasty, which reigned

commences from the first of the Shukla half of the

at Kalyāna

month of Kārtika; further more this day falls on Sunday in the seventh year of the era, and Dundubhi is also the name of the seventh year of the cycle according to the method of naming the cycle of years followed north of the Narmadá. I

to near

from about the end of the tenth

the end of the twelfth century of

the Christian era.

Mr. Elliot's paperS on Hindu

Inscriptions mentions a King Vikram fi ditya. II. or Kali

Vikrama, or Paramādirāya,

who

assumed the title of Trib h u v an a Malla,


 * The original distinctly reads Sabhatasſimantaghasapa

for Reranaderatum, and if so, Revana must be the name of

talarighatana prabhanjanam, of which the translation given above is an approximate guess, but is open to cor rection. If the epithet is not corrupt, it seems difficult how Sabhata should mean inimical. It is possible that

some local deity. Revana is not infrequently a proper name among the lower classes in the Karnātaka.
 * Here there occurs a long expression which I read as

ghasapatala may be a mistake for qhanopatala.

Karapatihitºchayánachalitadhairya, but which I translate intelligibly.

cannot

+ This is an ancient Canarese word, the modern form of

which is beſigára or beſikāra. It means a sportsman, a hunter.

t I do not know what this epithet means.

Literally it

signifies the new essence of the fame of an alligator.' § Bantarabhāra–Banta is a Canarese word, and means a hero.

Bantara is its genitive plural, and with the Sanskrit

be a mistake for Dharmadharmálm jasutyurádheya or Dhar madh Irmitmajasatyarādheya. The son of Yama is Dharma, the eldest of the Pandavas.
 * The original Dharmadharmatmajasayarádheya appears

Yama is also called Dharma.

++ Rich in horses?

it The original

Krayad inapárrakammātmiyamanneya

honorific bhāva, the epithet seems to mean the honourable hero,” or rather ‘the essence (bhava) of the heroes, i. e. the

corrupt. The letters, however, are perfectly clear in the

greatest hero.

inscription.


 * Revanadevana in the original, which may be a mistake

(angeya º for anyadiya)-sånyam is rather doubtful if not

§ Published in the Journal Royal Asiatic Society, vol. IV.