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INCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY CHALUKYAS OF GUJARAT
No. 27; PLATE XX
NAVSARI PLATES OF YUVARAJA SRYASRAYA-SILADITYA:
(KALACHURI) YEAR 421
THESE plates were found at Navsāri, the headquarters of the Navsāri division of
the Surat District, in the Bombay State. They were first edited, with a
lithograph and a translation, by Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji in the Journal of the
Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XVI, pp. 1 ff. They were subsequently
published, with a photo-lithograph, by Dr. E. Hultzsch in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII,
pp. 229 ff. They are edited here from the same photo-lithograph.
Dr. Fleet has given the following description of the plates:–
“The copper-plates are two in number, each about 8⅝" long by 5" broad at
the ends, and 4⅞" in the middle. The edges of them are here and here slightly thicker
than the inscribed surfaces; but it would seem that this was accidental, and that the plates
were intended to be smooth, without any fashioned rims. The plates are substantial; and
the letters, though fairly deep, do not show through on the reverse side at all. The engraving
is good. The interiors of many of the letters show marks of the working of the
engraver’s tool. The ring is about 3/10" thick and 1½" in diameter. It had been
cut before the time when it came into my hands. The seal, which is soldered on to the
ring in the usual fashion, is circular, about 1½" in diameter. It has, in relief on the
surface of it, only the motto Śrī-āśraya. The weight of the two plates is 2 lbs; and of
the ring and seal, 5½ oz.; total, 2 lbs. 5½ oz.1”
The characters are of the western variety of the southern alphabets. There are
small knobs at the top of the letters. V and dh appear closely similar in some places,
compare, e.g., v in vikrama, 1. 6 with dh in yudhi- in the same line; b is rectangular in
bala, 1. 5 and roundish in brahmachāri, 1. 15. A final consonant is indicated by a slanting
stroke or a curve at the top, see phalam, 1.20. The sign of the jihvā mūlīya occurs in
1.12 and the numerical symbols for 400, 20 and 1 in 1. 21.
The language is Sanskrit. Except for the mangala ślōka in praise of the boar incarnation
in the beginning and one benedictive verse at the end, the record is in prose
throughout. The inscription is very carelessly written. Not only have rules of sandhi
been frequently neglected, but letters and even words have in some places been omitted,
as will be seen from the transcribed text. The orthography shows the usual peculiarities
such as the use of ri for ŗi as in Mātristhavira, 1. 15, and of the guttural nasal for the
anusvāra in vinśaty-, 1. 21.
The plates were issued from Navasārikā by the Yuvarāja (crown-prince) Sryāśraya-Śīlāditya,
the son of Dharāśraya-Jayasimhavarman of the Chālukya family.2
The Chālukyas, we are told, were sons (i.e., descendants) of Hārītī and belonged to the
Mānavya gōtra. They are said to have been brought up by the seven Divine Mothers,
to have attained continuous prosperity through the protection of Kārttikēya and to have
obtained the boar ensign. About Dharāśraya-Jayasimha we are told that his prosperity
____________________
1 Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 230.
2 As in the following grant (No. 28), the dynastic name occurs here as Chalikya.
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