Inscription Number 88
Pali Copper-plate Grant of Maharaja Lakshmana.
Provenance: Village Pali, Close to Kosam, (Ancient Kausambi)
Karari, Pargana Manjhanpur Tehsil,
Prayagraj district.
Script: Nail headed Brahmi of the Northern class of the 5th-6th centuries A.D.
Language: Sanskrit.
Metres: Vv 1-3: श्लोक अनुष्टुभ
References: A. Fuhrer, Ep.Ind, II, pp-363 -65.
Footnote
1. From the facsimile in Ep.Ind, II, facing pp.364
2 Neither the capital Jayapur, nor the two feudatory princes, namely Maharaja Lakshmana and Maharaja
Naravahana datta, the Dutaka, are known from any other contemporary inscription, However it is note-worthy that they do not refer to their Gupta sovereign.
3. Undoubtedly the ancient name of Pali. Hence Jayapur should be located in this district.
4. त is engraved below the 1ine.
English Translation of the inscription
seal 0f Maharaja Lakshmana
Om ! Hail!
From Jayapur. A most devout worshipper of Mahesvara, the illustrious Maharaja Lakshmana, being in good health issues the following order to the agricultural householders,
such as the Brahmanas etc. residing in the village Phelaparvatika:-
Be it known to you that for the purpose of increasing the religious merit of my parents and of myself, this village is
granted by me, as an agrahara to the Brahmana Revati Svamin of the Kauntas gotra, a student of the Vajasanaya Madhyadina sakha. Therefore you shall be obedient to his commands and shall render to him customary taxes or proceeds, in kind and cash (Literally measurable as well as Gold) etc. And on this subject there are also the following verses of Vyasa:
(Follow the usual three imprecatory verses)
The Dutaka is the illustrious Maharaja Naravahanadatta.
Written by Baladeva on the full moon day of the month of Jyeshtha in the year one hundred and fifty eight.
Inscription number 89.
Mathura Broken Image Inscription of the time of Nripamitra
Provenance: Dudwala’s well, near Mathura.
Script: Brahmi of the 5th century A.D.
Language: Sanskrit
References: D.C. Sircar,, Ep.Ind., XXXIV, pp-11-13.
Footnote
1. No other record of this king is known. On palaeographical grounds Sircar roughly assigns the inscription
to the close of the 4th or the 5th century A.D. Nripamitra therefore, should either be placed before
samudragupta, who conquered Mathura region from the
Nagas, or at the close of 5th century AD., When the Gupta hold over the subordinates had loosened. since
Mitra name endings were in vogue among the Nagas, the
latter possibility seems more plausible, Nripamitra may have been a semi-independent feudatory of the Guptas.
2. From the Facsimile in Ep.Ind, XXXIV.
The metre seems to be Arya.
3. Bhatri suffix is the same as it’s prakritised form. Bhattaraka used in Gupta and later Inscriptions as an honorific king.
4. The metre is upajati.
English Translation of the inscription
1. Of Lord Nripamitra —-.
of Udaka, who is fond of true religion.
2. Having got constructed which, by the lord Nripamitra,
Let it cause the good of that
Lord of kings in the next world and in this.
Inscription number 90.
Buddhist Inscription of Amativarman
Gupta year 262 ( =582 AD)
Provenance: Not known but probably
somewhere around Mathura. Now in Archaeological Museum,
Mathura, Uttara Pradesh.
Footnote
1. P.R Srinivasan reads the year as (100+40+8) followed by 2 and thus assigns the record to the
Gupta year 148. (=468 AD.) He opines that Paramabhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Amatrivarman was a provincial ruler at Mathura, when skandagupta
died about 467 AD. During the ensuing confuslon caused by the succession struggle Amatrivarman
proclaimed independence and assumed the high sounding
titles.The digit 2 following the digits for the era, Srinivasan explains as the king’s regnal year.
Presumably to justify two systems of chronology he reads सम्वतसरे as सम्वतसरेषु
The explanation is implausible. What he considers an obliterated symbol for 100 appears to be an earlier depression, and the years start with the digit
that he deciphers as 40, being similar to the numeral 40 of Kshatrapa coins of 2nd to 4th century AD. Since
paleographically, the script belongs to 5th 6th century AD. we shall have to compare tbe numerals with those found on Contemporary records.
2. Believed to have originally been a part of the pedestal of a Buddhist image.
Script: Brahmi of the 5th-6th century AD. showing signs of a very early type of the siddhama-trika alphabet characterised by the wedge-shaped
or nail-headed tops of the letters.
Language: Sanskrit.
References: P.R. Srinivasan, Ep.Ind XXXIX, Pt.I, pp-10-12.
Footnote
1. From the facsimile in Ep.Ind. XXXIX, Pt.I, facing pp-11.
2. Srinivasan: सम्वतसरे (षु 100)+40+8(1)2.
3. Srinivasan: दं धु ष्ठिभि: यद ( अत्र ) पु ( ण्यं ) मा — ण —-
English Translation of the inscription.
Peace ! (in the reign of), Paramabhattaraka
Maharajadhiraja sr Amatrivaman, in the year: 262, in the fourth month of the spring (= summer) season on the twenty fifth day, this pious gift, the image of the noble Avaloki-tesvara has been established by the merchant Jivesvara. whatever merit there is in it.