1885.] Dr. R. Mitrd — On a Coj^per Plate Inscrvption from Dacca. 49 



" siology and Pathology, as well as Geology, History, Geography and 

 "Statistics." 



" The term will be closed at the end of December 1886. 



" The value of the prize amounts to 12,000 Italian Lire. 



" The prize will in no case be given to any of the National Members 

 of the Academy of Turin, resident or non-resident. 



A. FABRETTI, 



The Fresiclent of the B. Academy." 

 Turin, Jamiary 1st, 1885. 



Read a letter from the Magistrate of Patna forwarding for presen- 

 tation to the Society a couple of old Buddhist Coins which the owner 

 has presented to Government for this purpose and wishes the Govern- 

 ment to be considered as the donor. 



The Chairman reported that the Council had sanctioned the publica- 

 tion in the Bibliotheca Indica of the whole of the Institutes of Parasara, 

 instead of only the Prayaschitta section of it as previously sanctioned. 



The Chairman exhibited a copper-plate inscription forwarded to 

 him by Babu Nilakantha Mazumdar, of Dacca, and referred to the pecu- 

 liarities of certain dates in it. 



Dr. Mitra remarked that the plate had been found, several feet 

 under the earth, at Ashrafpur, Station Rpipur, Zillah Dacca, when level- 

 ling a mound in the neighbourhood of a tank, and is now the property of 

 Babu Pratapachandra Banerji of that place. It measures 10" x 6"-5, 

 and is encrusted on each side with a uniform layer of verdigris. The 

 edges are much corroded, and the letters nea-r them have become 

 illegible. In the middle of the plate, the letters are, however, clear^ 

 and they show the record to be a muniment of the grant of one or more 

 plots of land by one Deva Khadga, which is apparently a poetical 

 inversion of Khadgadeva. The donees were Buddhists, who had charge 

 of a Vihara or monastery, to the support of which the proceeds of the 

 land were to be applied. The donor was also of the same persua- 

 sion, though the legend on his seal is a couchant bull. The mention 

 of a vihara is of some importance, as affording a trace of the existence of 

 Buddhism in the eastern districts at an early period. The name on the 

 seal is not legible. 



Owing to the illegibility of the beginning and end of every line, 

 it is impossible to produce a connected translation of the whole record, 

 but a tentative reading, prepared by Pandit Kamakhyanath Tarkaratna, 

 of the Calcutta Sanskrit College, was submitted. 



