
9g. Maner Copperplate of Govindacandra, V.E. 1183. 
By N. G. Masumpar, M.A, 
This copperplate comes from the village of Maner in the 
Dinapore Subdivision of the Patna District in Bihar. It was 
first noticed by Mr. R. D. Banerji, in his Banglar Itihasa, Vol. 
I, pp. 295-96, and the Palas of Bengal (Mem. A.S.B. Vol. V), 
p. 106. Subsequently a paper containing the text and transla- 
tion of the inscription as well as a rather indistinct photograph 
of the plate was published by Pandit Ramavatara Sarma in the 
Journal of the. Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. II, pp. 
441-47. As the Pandit’s article unfortunately contained many 
inaccuracies I drew up this note some two years ago. But 
I did not venture to publish it because my transcript was 
not based on an inspection of the original plate. I have since 
been told that the original plate cannot be traced at present. 
{ therefore feel no hesitation now in placing my account before 
scholars for what it is worth. : 
This is a single plate inscribed on one face only. There is 
a circular seal attached to it, at the top. It bears the name 
Srimad-Govindacandradeva right across the centre, a device, 
which looks like a Garuda, just above it, and a Sankha or conch 
' shell at the bottom of the legend. The plate contains 26 lines 
of writing which seems to be well preserved. The characters are 
agari as in other Gahadavala grants and the language is Sans- 
krit.—The orthography calls for no special remarks excepting 
that é is sometimes substituted by s e. g. siva for Siva (1. 17).— 
In the beginning there are nine well-known verses which invoke 
the blessing of the goddess Laksmi and give the genealogy of 
the dynasty up to Govindacandra. At the end again we find — 
as many as eleven benedictive and imprecatory verses, and 
the name of the scribe in prose. The formal part of the grant 
recording the donation runs from line 8 to line 19. ae 
The inscription is one of the Paramabhattaraka Maharaja- 
dhiraja Paramesvara Govindacandra, son and successor of the 
P.M.P. Madanapala, who was the son and successor of the 
P.M.P.Candradeva, The grant records that on Sunday, the 11th 
of the dark-half of the month of Jyaistha of the (Vikrama) year 
1183 (expressed both in words and decimal figures), he granted 
the villages of Gunave and Padali in the Maniari-pattala to a 
Brahman named Ganesvarasarman, grandson of Thakkura Siva 
and son of Thakkura Dedama, belonging to the Kasyapa gotra, 
after bathing in the Ganges at Kanyakubja. The taxes herein 
specified, which were the source of revenue to the grantee, are 
bhagabhogakara, pravantkara and Turuskadanda, which are 
