290 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. (June, 1911. 
bets. While editing Mr. Stapleton’s plate, I have tried to 
discuss the peculiarities of the characters to their fullest extent, 
but the publication of Mr. Pargiter’s article necessitates a 
recapitulation of the whole argument. It appears to me, that 
on the basis of Palaeography, these four copperplates may 
safely be announced to be forgeries. The date of the forging 
of these grants cannot be exactly determined, but it is certain 
that they are not modern forgeries, but on the other hand, at 
least as ancient as the 11th or 12th century A.D. 
(2) These copperplates show a novel method of granting 
land and conveying the same. In the grants published by 
Mr. Pargiter, this method, though different from those 
employed in all other grants, differs slightly at the same time 
from that employed in the fourth or Mr. Stapleton’s grant. 
(3) The seals on the three copperplate grants are at least a 
couple of centuries older than the characters employed in the 
inscriptions. The seals, it should be mentioned, are not of the 
princes mentioned therein, but belong to certain District 
officials. In this case too we find a remarkable eee ae hg 
the poe to be found in the majority of copperplate gran 
(4) The language of the three older i Sa Sot Ab. 
tions = not so vague as that of Mr. Stapleton’s grant. 
The dates to be found on these copperplates cannot 
be faces to any particular era known at present. In my 
article on Mr. Stapleton’s grant, [have said that the date in 
it probably referred to the Harsa Samvat, but a careful perusal 
_of Bengal. This material, though not so definite, casts some 
side lights upon the internal condition of the country in that 
peri 
: I shall now take the conclusions stated above in proper 
order. 
I. THe CHARACTERS OF THE INSCRIPTIONS. 
First of all, I shall take the inscriptions edited by Mr. 
Pargiter in the order i in which he has taken asm 
(1) The Grant of Dharmmaditya : the 
very marked difference is sis in ihe use of the 
letters Ha and La. We have two forms of Ha in this inscription : 
Ist, the Eastern variety of the early Gupta form, which is to 
be found in the Allahabad Inscription of Samudragupta, the 
Kahaum Inscription of Skandagupta” and the Dhanaidaha 
1 Fleet’s Gupta Inscriptions, p. 6. 2 Ibid., p. 67. 
