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INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY GURJARAS
No .16; Plate X
KAIRA PLATES OF DADDA II (PRASANTARAGA)(KALACHURI) YEAR 380
THIS set of two copper-plates was found about 1827 together with three others1 in the
town of khēdá or kairá, the headquarters of a district of the same name in
Gujarat, Bombay State. “The river ‘Watrua’ runs close to the walls of khēdá
on the north-west side, and was the cause of the discovery by washing down the walls
and earth.”2 The plates were brought to notice ten years later by Dr. A. Burn who sent
transcripts and facsimiles of them to Mr. James Prinsep, then Secretary of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal. As three of them contained dates both in words and in figures, Mr. Prinsep
first published facsimiles and explanations of date-portions of the grants, in J.A.S.b., Vol,
VII, p. 348, and later on a mixed transcript of two of them , which were congnate grants
of Dadda II on pp.908 ff. of the same volume. When Dr. Burn returned home, he presented the Royal Asiatic Society with three of the sets, Viz., two containing this and the following grant of Dadda-Praśāntāraga and the third a grant of Vijayarāja3. The grants were
subsequently published together with facsimile plates and a translation, by Prof. J. Dowson
in the J.R.A.S. (New Series) (1865), Vol. I, pp 247 ff. The original plates of the two
grants of Dadda II have since been lost. When Dr. Fleet edited them finally in the
Indian Antiquary, Vol. XIII, pp. 8I ff., he had to depend on the facsimiles accompanying
Prof. Dowson’s article. I edit them here from the same facsimiles.
The facsimiles show two plates, each measuring about 111/2 broad and 93/6 high.
It is not possible to say whether their edges were smooth or were raised into rims for the
protection of the writing. The lower proper left corner of the first plate is broken off,
resulting in the loss of from one to six akshara in II. 21-29. Besides a small portion of
the upper proper right corner of the second plate is lost, causing a partial destruction of
the first six aksharas of 1.31. The missing aksharas can, however, be supplied from the
corresponding portion of the following grant. The plates seem, otherwise, to be in a
state of good preservation. Prof. Dowson’s facsimiles are fairly good, though it is not
unlikely that some letters which were legible on the original plates, have not come out
in them4 In making the subjoined transcript I have, however, taken Prof. Dowson’s
lithographs to be accurate copies of the original plates.
The Plates have each two roundish holes about 15/2 “ in diameter for the rings which
must have originally held them together. The lithograph shows, however, only one
ring with a round seal about 1 ½” in diameter. The surface of the seal is divided into two
fairly equal parts by a horizontal line. The upper part contains in relief ‘some symbol
of sun-worship’, while the lower has the legend Sāmantha dada in the same characters as those of the records on the plates.
The characters of the inscriptions, excepts the sign-manual, belong to the western
variety of the southern alphabets. There are small knobs on the tops of letters. The
1Two of these were another grants of Dadda II of the year 385 ( No. 17, below) and grant of Vijayarāja of the Chālukya dynasty ( no 34, below ) No information about the third set is available.
2J.A.S.B., Vol VII, p. 908.
3No.34 below.
4For instance, the superscript ch in āchchidyāmānakam, I. 46, which must have been incised on the original plate, does not appear in the lithograph.
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