A Charters of the Somavamst Kings. [January, 1905. 
described as faery wea! The charters granted in the 8th and 9th 
years of his son Maha-Sivagupta (Yayati) are issued from Vinita- 
pura ; while the charters granted in the 24th and the 28th years 
of the latter's reign and the one granted by his son are issued 
from Yayatinagara. Taking Mr. Fleet’s view to be correct, we 
may say that Maha-Sivagupta, who was otherwise called Yayati, 
changed the name of his capital and called it after his own name 
as Yayatinagara (‘city of Yayati’), and his son also continued the 
new name. 
No grants of Sivagupta, the first king, has come down to us. 
He is not called Trikalingadhipati, nor is the word Maha (the 
Great) prefixed to his name. This shows that the powers and 
possessions of this dynasty were increased by Maha-Bhavagupta I. 
His son Maha-Sivagupta is said in one of the eulogistic verses 
to have defeated Ajapala (a king probably) in battle and to have 
captured thirty-two big elephants. From the third plate of 
Charter H, which is the worst executed of the charters, it ap- 
pears that he defeated the Cedzs and devastated their country 
(Dahala). 
I have made a tabular abstract of the whole series of ten 
charters. This will facilitate their comparative study and will 
save the trouble of going through the records themselves. The 
abstract is appended with this paper. 
Some Details common to the new Charters (G, H, I, and J). 
As already stated, they were found somewhere in the Native 
State of Patna attached to the Sambalpur district in the Central 
Provinces, Hach charter consists of three plates strung together 
by a thick ring, the ends of which are joined in a circu- 
lar seal. The seal bears in relief a seated female figure with 
two elephants with uplifted trunks. Other details of the seals 
cannot be well distinguished owing to the rust that has accum- 
culated upon them. The inscriptions are on both sides 
of the middle plate and on the inner sides of the first and the 
third plate. In J, the inscription extends to the outer side of 
the third plate. The characters employed are Nagari of the north- 
ern type and belong to that particular variety of it to which the 
name of Kutila has come to be applied. The engraving is usually 
deep and legible; the letters do not usually show through on the 
opposite sides of the plates. The language employed in these re- 
cords is Sanskrit; and except for the benedictive, imprecatory and 
eulogistic verses, they are generally in prose throughout. A point 
of orthography common to all these records is the use of v for 6. 
G.—Péina Copper-Plate Grant of the 6th year of Maha-Bhava- 
gupta’s reign. 
_ The plates, the ring and the seal together weigh 2 seers and 
123 chhataks (i.e., a little more than 53 lbs.). Hach of the plates 
measures about 73’ by 5”. The ring is about half an inch in 
