CONTAINING SANSCRIT INSCRIPTIONS. 44^ 



the date of the grant, which unfortunately is reckoned 

 only by the reign, without any reference to a known 

 era. 



The ornament, affixed to the plate, and represent- 

 ing a seal, contains a single line of writing-, which is 

 distinctly read, Sri VrGRAHAPA''LADE'vA. This name, 

 as of the grantor, is found at the close of the inscrip- 

 tion ; and it occurs more than once in the body of the 

 patent. Among his ancestors and predecessors, the 

 following names are distinctly legible. 



The first prince mentioned is Locapa'la, and after 

 him Dharmapa'la. The next name has not been de- 

 cyphered : but the following one is Jayapa'la, suc- 

 ceeded by De'vapa'la. Two or three subsequent 

 names are yet undecyphered * : they are followed by 



Ra'jap'ala, Pa'la de'va, and subsequently Ma- 



hipa'la de'va, Nayapa'la and again Vigrahapa'la 

 de'va. 



So far as a glympse has been yet obtained of the 

 purport of the inscription, it seems to be a grant by 

 Vigrahapa'la deVa, in the making of which 

 Nayapa'la likewise appears to have had some 

 share. It is dated Samvat^ 12, on the gtli day 

 Chailra. 



The use of the word Samvat (which properly signi- 

 fies a year) to denote the year of the king's reign, and 

 not that of Vicrama'ditya's era, merits particular 

 notice. In the inscription on the plates found at 



* One seems to be Narayana ; perhaps Narayanapala. 

 t The original seems to exhibit Samat : but this rauat be in* 

 tended fer Samiai or Samvat. 



