30. Plate of Gayida Tunga Deva. 
By Nivmant CuHaxkravarti, M.A. 
This copper-plate has been for some time in the possession 
of the Asiatic Soc.ety of Bengal, and there is no mention in the 
Proceedings to show how the Society received it. The plate is 
rectangular, 6” x5,” very heavy, with an elliptical brass seal 
soldered on its upper side.. On the seal is the figure of a bull 
standing before a tree, above which is the name of the king 
Sri Gayada tunga devasya, and above the name is a crescent with 
a small circle, the symbol for sun and moon. The plate is 
inscribed on both sides and the letters are deeply cut and in a 
good state of preservation. 
From palzographic considerations the inscription may be 
assigned to the 11th century A.D. A comparison of the writ- 
ing on this plate with that on the plates of Mahabhavagupta 
(Ep. Ind., vol. iii, pp. 342, 348), which have been assigned to 
the 11th century A.D. by Dr. Fleet, shows that while in almost 
all cases the letters are identical. in some they show a little 
difference ; ¢.g., the letters ja and ha. The lowest line of ia 
ends, in the plates of Mahabhavagupta, in a curve, while in 
_ this plate it ends in a perpendicular line. The letter ha has 
two perpendicular lines in tne plates of Mahabhavigupta, but 
here it ends in a single line. A comparison of the paleozraphy 
of this plate with that of Deopara inscription, assigned by 
Bihler to 1100 A.D., is in favour of placing it earlier. A 
further paleographical peculiarity is the invers'on of the sign 
of long vowel @ in lines 29 and 31, in the word mala, where 
instead of being written by the side of the letter it has been 
Tepresented by an upward stroke on the seriff. The language 
is hopelessly corrupt Sanskrit prose, although the author in 
the beginning indulges in a display of high-sound ng meta- 
Phors. It is useless to attempt correction of the whole text. 
Prince named Pratapa was ruling there in samvat 1279. 
Whether there was any connexion between his family and that 
of the Tungas, we have no means to ascertain. Gayadatunga 
calls himself Parama-mahesvara, i.e., a great Saiva, a fact 
