1902,] H. P. Shastri — Inscriptions of Mahcisivd and Mahabhava Gtqda. 89 



for it assumed only four classes of people. The Vratya people having 

 performed the Vratja-stoma could freely mix with members of the four 

 pure and original castes on terms of equality. 



2. Four inscriptions of Mahasiva Gupta and Mahahhava Gupta of 

 Kalinga and Kosala. — ^i/ ^^hamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Shastri, M.A. 



Babu Rangalal Banerji edited one set of three Charters of Maha- 

 bhava Gupta in the Ind. Ant., Vol. V, in 1876. He edited another set 

 by Mahasiva Gupta in Jour. Beng. As. Soc. in 1877. Babu Pratap 

 Chandra Ghosh edited another set in the same year in the same Journal. 

 Dr. R. Mitra edited a fourth set of the Charters in 1882 in the same 

 Journal again. 



In the third volume of the Epi. Ind. Mr. Fleet re-edited these four 

 chapters and edited two more which came into his possession. 



I have got four new charters of these kings here. They belong to 

 the same Mahabhava Gupta and Mahasiva Gupta like their predecessors. 

 The plates have been deciphered by Babu Ganga Mohan Laskar, M.A., 

 Government Research Scholar, under my directions. But they afford 

 very little new information. It is a wonder that with 10 inscriptions in 

 our possession we do not yet precisely know who the kings were and 

 where and when they reigned. 



As pointed out by Mr. Fleet the Epigraphy belongs to a period 

 subsequent to 1000 A.D., but I do not think very long after 1000 A.D. 



The kings are said to have reigned over the countries of Kosala, which 

 means Gondvana and Kalinga or Trikalinga, a very vague word mean- 

 ing sometimes the whole coast from Madras to Bengal sometimes the 

 Northern Sarkars and Countries including the Eastern Provinces of the 

 Nizam. 



Mr. Fleet says that their capital, sometimes called Vinetapura 

 and sometimes Yayatinagara, on the Mahanadi is the modern Kataka. 

 Babu M. M. Chakravartti doubts if this could be correct. That these 

 two names apply to the same city there is no doubt, for a certain number 

 of slokas have been applied to the descriptions of both and in both these 

 descriptions the city is said to be on the Mahanadi. 



The lately discovered Sena records speak both of Yayatinagara and 

 of Vinitapura. The Pavaraduta written by a courtier of Lakshma-sena 

 speaks of Yayatinagara and Ballala Carita speaks of "Vinitapura where 

 the persecuted Banias found a refuge. 



The villages granted with strange Dravidian names are extremely 

 difficult to identify. 



The plates will be properly edited in the Journal or in Epi- 

 graphia. 



