English. Garo. Konch. In the house is the Nokníñá ghorá gupuk- Nok bhíture ghure boksaddle of the white ní júi dúñá. horse. níyání jín toá Put the saddle on his Bíní jáñílá jín gátbo. Uání kúnjúai jín lákha, back. I have beaten his son Bíná písáko áñá bañe Uání sásáwau áñ pañai with many stripes. doketá. toká suksí. He is grazing the cat- Hádeñ sákau máchú Hákau káráwáy machu tle on the top of the mogá ṭuñá. hill. ásáñe dúñá. dáṭautú. He is sitting on a horse Uá bol Jáfáñ ghorau Uá pánchúñai ghorauunder that tree. wai másuñáy ṭanțú. His brother is taller Bíní ádá bíní ábí gúpá- Ưání bháí úání jhánowthan his sister. nábá dhálá. níbá mátá. The price of that is Uání dám gonsá ádullí. Uání dám dúí ṭáká ek two rupees half. and a ádullí. My father lives in that Hai Uá nok chonau U'á nok puláwe ání áwá Beat him well and Biko náme dokbo ára lyání khúb tok ára khúbind him with ropes. bágáchá khá donbo. rúgátí khaitán. Draw water from the Khúá níkho chí khobo. Khúání tíká khoñ. well. Walk before me. Añnískun rí. Aní áge le. Whose boy comes be- Sání písá náñní jámánú Chání sásá níní páse púrlátánai. From a shop-keeper Shoñní dúkándár sí brí- Gánwní dúkándár niyai Text and Translation of Balandshahar Inscription. By The copper-plate inscription, a translation of which is hereto appended, was presented to the Society in February, 1867 by Mr. Webster, Collector of Balandshahar. He says, it was found in a ruined gurhee situated in mouzah Manpur, pergunna Agoutha. The inscription records the grant of a village named Gandavá made by one Ananga to a brahman of the Vátsa Gotra. The grant was made in the vernal equinox of Samvat 1233. The engravers were kayasthas. The plate is in tolerable preservation, and measures 1 foot 9 inches by 1 foot 1 inch. It would have been a useful link in the chain of Indian history of the time of the first Mahomedan invasion, if some coins or other inscriptions were forthcoming as corroborations of the dates and the names of kings immortalized in this plate. But as it is, the plate is a solitary landmark in the history of Kalinga, a name that conveys to the mind of the reader a vague notion of the sea-coast on the south of Bengal. The most inexplicable fact connected with this plate is, that it was found so high up near Balandshahar. Kalinga has no representative in the coin cabinet, unless under some other name; and the names of the kings Govinda, Chandraka, Bhojadeva, Vikramaditya and Ananga,though occurring in many dynasties, are never coupled with the Kalinga country or the Rodra family, a family quite unknown in the history of the Deccan. Kalinga extended over a large tract of country from Orissa to the Nilgiris. It was never owned by a single sovereign. Different parts of it were at the same time owned by several potentates, and the Rodra dynasty was one of those petty chiefs. The kings of Orissa, for a long time in the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, called themselves sovereigns of Kalinga and Karnáta (Kalinga nava koti Karnatesvara), though it is known, they had little to do with Karnáta, which had its own kings. Such assumptions of sovereignty over dominions which kings do not possess, are not rare. Rodras probably owning a small part of Kalinga, assumed the whole. This race of kings is quite unknown, unless the reading of the name is found fault with; and I admit, it may be read otherwise. The reading of the letters af is very dubious, and it is painful to observe that the two principal names (of the place and of the family) which make the record important, are uncertain; so is also the date, the plate at that part being partly destroyed by time, and two letters are missing. The name of the family which was at first read as Rodra, on second thought appears to be something different. It is most like Yodu; but the final t (a) of the previous verbra being combined with it, as it is in the inscription, would not appear so. It is spelt as if it were djo (), the final t ()being changed into d (E), and j (), as a matter of course, goes under it. The simple rules of Sandhi must, however, change the final t (a) into j(), and not into d() as it appears. On the other hand again, the word Yodu does not begin with a ()j, but a (7) y. The reading then is evidently something else. Does the word stand for the Rahtor dynasty, a family that ruled at Kanouj, and one of whose princes Govindachandra reigned at about the time of the inscription, and whose name appears in the Fyzabad inscription (J. A. S. B., vol X. p. 98) and also on coins? The letters which were construed to be the name of the country Kalinga are very ambiguous and illegible. But considering the rude stage of the art of engraving, the much ruder instruments then in use, and the ignorance of the engravers, it may be safely assumed that the there stands for and as the compound letters are not distinctly written, the T may be said to represent I. Thus we have the name of Kalinga. With the other reading of Kanishtha (af) however the passage explains itself equally well. The passage translated reads thus with Kalinga. Then from the sacrifices of the virtuous king of Kalinga, was born Ananga, the chief of kings, full of prowess, and splendour." With Kanishtha, however, it reads as follows: 'Then from him was born Ananga, the chief of kings, full of prowess and splendour, (as well becomes) the younger brother of (Yudishṭhira) Dharmarája.' In the former reading, we have to supply an á to, while for the second we have to assume a comparison. In either case, however, to give sense, the á after I must be changed to T. The grant records the names of princes of two distinct families, The record though they are all grouped under the same family name. goes backwards to the fourteenth crowned head from the donor. It begins with Chandraka who, it appears, must have been either the founder of the family, or was distinguished for some meritorious act. If the family name be Rahtor, Chandraka must have transferred the seat of government from Kanouj, and established himself in the new city. The seventh linear descendant from Chandraka is Haradatta, whose brother Bhogáditya or Homáditya succeeded him. The name of this prince again is not clear, it may be read Bhogáditya or Homáditya. His nephew Sri-kuláditya followed him to the throne. After him, came Vikramaditya, the son of Haradatta. The last named prince was dethroned, it appears by his brahman minister, Vuhupati who, on ascending the throne assumed the more royal name of Padmáditya. Padmáditya is the founder of a line, and the fourth from him is Ananga, the donor of the village. The inscription is in modern Sanscrit, and the characters belong o the period immediately succeeding that of the Kutila inscriptions of the tenth century. The date assigned to the inscription is conjectural, as the plate at that part is defaced by rust. The words clearly recognizable are चयविंशदधिकशतानि, the space intervening is just sufficient for three letters. is spelt The faint impression of the first is something like, but the last traceable is a . The intermediate has evidently a repha on it. The combination would evidently be, which may be interpreted as a misspelling of. The interchange of and is not unprecedented with the scribes and engravers of this plate. The very first couplet of the inscription has a similar error, ga with a dental sat the end. There are many such errors; in some passages the final á has taken the place of a visarga, the two dots of which when joined, resemble the á I. The inscription uses three different forms of the palatal s, and the distinction of the dental n and dental t is not at all preserved. The Kutila forms of bha, ha, dha, ga, and cerebral na, are perfectly preserved in the characters of the inscription, though the compound of the cerebral n with y is like that of the modern Nágri w. The form, however, appears once for nya. At some places, the dental sis of the modern form, and at others as old as that of the Vallabhi plate of Gujrát. Bha is of the Allahabad Gupta form. The initial i and e are of a very old type, and it is curious to observe how characters of very different antiquity are promiscuously used. The language of the inscription is not at all pure and chaste. Grammatical errors, especially misapplications of case-terminations, are common. It is interesting to note that the inscription begins with a descriptive character, the personages are described in the third person; but as it comes to the close, the method of reported speech is discontinued. The writer confounds the sayings of the kings with his own, and it is very difficult to render the passages. This is mainly due to the want of the signs of quotation in Sanscrit Grammar. The language is very like that of many other grants by similar petty chiefs. The last five lines are identical with those of Válavarmá Deva, Virasningha Deva and Pratápadhavata Deva. (Compare A. R. vol. IX. p. 402, J. Am. O. Soc., vol. VI. pp. 538-548.) |