A Note on the Tirlingi Copper-Plate - Paper by Priyatosh Banerjee

This is a single copper-plate, the last of a missing set. It was found by a woman of Tirlingi, a village near Tekkali in the Ganjam District, and was published by Pandit Satya Narayan Rajaguru in the Journal of the Audhra Historical Research Society, Vol. III (1928-29), pp. 54 ff., along with a facsimile which is very indistinct.

The plate was purchased by the Archaeological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta from a Brahmin of Parl¡kim®·i1940.

The plate mca~ures 4¹/₂"x 2". It is inscribed on both the sides. There are altogether seven lines of writing. five lines on the obverse, and two lines on the reverse. The letters are nicely executed, though some of them are damaged owing to the cor-rosion of the surface of the plate.

The characters belong to a variety of Southern alphabets, and resemble those of Narasingapalli and Url¡m plates (bearing years 7 and 80 respectively) of Hastivarman[1] and of Achyutapuram, S¡nta-bomm¡li and Parl¡kim®·i plates (the first bearing year 87, and the last one, 91) of Indravarman II[2] of the early Ga´ga dynasty. Thus palaeographically, the present plate can be ascribed to C. 6th-7th century A. D.

This grant is one of an early Ca´ga king of Orissa whose name will remain shrouded in obscurity until the other plates of the set are available.[3] The plate under consideration (being the last of the set) contains as expected the customary verses, and fortunately enough the name of its engraver, and the dateon which it was issued. The engraver was Vinayachandra (son of Bh¡nuchandra who as is well-known was the writer of the Narasingapalli and Url¡m plates of Hastivarman, and the Achyutapuram, S¡nta-bomm¡li and Parl¡kim®·li grants of Indravarman II bearing (Ga´ga) years 79.91 as noted above. The inscription as Rajaguru has suggested is dated year 283a (though his reading of the other portion of the plate contains some minor inarruracies). Since the facsimile published along with his article is very been expresed by scholars4 as to the correctness of the reading of the plate, specially the date portion, I am giving below, to clarify the position, the text from the original.

Text

Reverse

As shown above, the date of the inscription is expressed as pravardham¡na-r¡jya-samvatsarasyu ash¶¡vim¿aty¡m.8 It is difficult to say if it denotes simply a regnal year of the king who issued the inscription or it is a year in the Ga´ga era9 as Rajaguru has already suggested.10 It may be noted that the year 39 of the Jirjingi plate, (of Indravarman I) and the years of the grants of Hastivarman, and Indravarman II (years 79-91 as shown above) have been referred by the scholars to the Ga´ga era and hence it is quite possible that the year 28 of the present plate also belongs to the G¡´geya Samvat.11 If so this becomes the earlist known record in the Ga´ga era, though it is difficult to ascertain the name of the donor12 of the grant in the present state of our knowledge.

According to Rajaguru the actual reading is Vinayachandr®-noti. But the actual reading appears to be Vinayachandr®¸-®ti as given above.

[1] Ep. Ind., Vol. XXII, pp.62 ff., and Vol. XVII, p. 332.

[2] Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 128 ff., Vol. XXVI, p. and Ind. Ant. Vol XVI, p. 134

[3] Though the name of the king who issued the plate is not available, there is no doubt that the inscription belongs to an early Ga´ga king of Orissa as is apparent from the findspot, script and language of the plate. . Adfdoviininti has been spelt with the gtittural nasal ri in place of mu.mim in the plate

3a Ash¶¡vim¿ati has been spelt with the guttural nasal ´ in place of anusv¡va in the plate.

4 .Ep. Ind, V o l . X X I I I , p. 63. V o l . XXV , p. 196.

5 The upper portion of the letter is obliterated.

6 Read datt¡m v¡.

7 Ya ¢s obliterated.

8 Read Yudhish¶hira. This corrected reading occurs as original in Rajaguru's transcript.

9 .Read mah¢m.

10 Read p¡lanam.

11 Read lower portion of the syllabale ti is obliterated.

12 Read vaset iti. This portion is obliterated in the plate.

1 Read samvatsarasya

2 Read ash¶¡vim¿aty¡m-asya.

3 Read ph¡lguna. Rajaguru reads ph¡lguno.

4 Rajaguru reads kris¶´.

5 In Rajguru's transcript occurs utkir¸¸am

6 Read Bh¡nucjandrasya s£nun¡. This corrected reading occurs as original in Rajaguru's transcript.

7 According to Rajaguru the actual reading is Vinayachandr®-noti. But the actual reading appears to be Vinayachandr®¸-®ti as given above.

8 Bhandarkar takes the date to be 88 (Bhandaekar's list of Northern Indian Inscriptions, appendix, p.285) but this is not supported by the actual reading.

9 According to G.Ramadas this is a spurious one (Journal of the Andhra Historical Reasearch Society, Vol. III, p. 63), but his grounds do not appear to be sufficient, Ep. Ind., Vol., XXV, p. 196.

10 The epoch of the Ga´ga era seems to lie somewhere between 494 and 560 A.D, Ep. Ind., Vol., XXIII. P. 63.

11 While editing the Narasingapali inscription of Hastivarman Dr. Majumdar observes regarding the date of the plate, "I leave out of account the Turlingi grant, dated 28 (J.A.H.R.S., Vol. II, p. 54), for the reading of the date appears to me to be Bh¡nuchandra. So if the year of the Tirlingi plate belong to the referred, we have to presume that Vinayachandra was in active service from the year 28 or somethime previous to it, to the year 91 (date of the Parl¡kim®·I plates of Indravarman II) or sometime posterior to it. In other words he held the office for nearly sixty-five to seventy years. This appears to be highly improbable. Ep. Ind., Vol XXIII. P. 63. Dr. Majumdar had to depend on the facsimile of the inscription (which is hopelessly indistinct) published by Rajaguru, as the original plate was not available to him, and if one is to judge from the published facsimile of the plate, one is bound to agree with his (Dr. Majumdar's) remarks. But I have carefully studied the inscription from the original and find that the date of the inscription is year 28.

12 Prof. Subba Rao suggests that the donor of the Tirlingi grant was perhaps Mitravarman, father of Indr¡dhir¡ja mentioned in the God¡var¢ plates of prithv¢m£la (J.A.H.R.S.VOL. vi, P. 71). Bhandarkar thinks that Indr¡dhir¡ja may be identical with Indravarman I of Jirjingi plate, year 39, see Bhandarkar's List p. 386. Ep. Ind. Vol. XXv, p. 196.