1874.] Discovery of a Cop]) er plate at Cliitiagong. 207 



would act as General Secretary and as Treasurer of tlie Society, in addition 

 to his duties as Philological Secretary. 



Also, that they had appointed Babu Gopal Chandr Dutt as First Cler^ 

 of the Secretary's Office, on Es. 60 a month j and that Yiisuf All, Store- 

 keeper, had been dismissed. 



The Secretary laid before the Meeting a Copper plate, presented 

 to the Society by Mr. A. L. Clay, C. S. 



Mr. Clay states that the plate was found at the time of re-digging a 

 pond in Nasirabad, a village on the south-east corner of the town of Chitta- 

 gong. The pond formerly belonged to the Bhats of the village ; but it now 

 belongs to a Muhammadan. 



The plate is a grant of land made in 1165 Saka, or 1243 A. D., by Raja 

 Damudar Deb, son of Basil Deb, son of Madhusudan Deb, son of Purushot- 

 tam, of Tripura (Tiparah). 



Mr. Blochmann said that the plate was ,of great interest as it shewed 

 that Chittagong (Chatgaon) belonged in the beginning of the 13th century, 

 when the Muhammadans had just conquered Bengal, to the Maharajas of 

 Tiparah. The plate mentions the names of four of them. They are, however, 

 not given by E,ev. J. Long in his short Analysis of Eaj-Mala, a poem which 

 contains the family history of the Maharajas (Journal, Vol. XIX, for 1858.) 



The plate had been made over to Babu Prannath Pandit, member of 

 the Society, who had read and translated it. A facsimile of the plate and 

 the Babu's remarks on it would be published in the fourth number of the 

 Journal, Part I, for 1874. The thanks of the Society were due to Mr. Clay 

 for his interesting presentation. 



The President exhibited one gold and two silver coins belonging to 

 himself. 



Mr. Blochmann said that the first coin, a small thick silver piece, not 

 much larger than a two-anna piece, contained on one side the words 



Mahmud Shah ibn Latif Shah, the king. 



The reverse was too much cut away. The coin is a Gujarat! coin. Mah- 

 mud Shah, III., son of Latif Khan, son of Muzaffar Shah, reigned from 

 A. D. 1537 to 1553 ; vide Thomas, Chronicles, pp. 351 to 853. 



The second was a small square Kashmir silver coin. 



Obyer^ (O^i^J^ jj-jUa i^^ss^ Muhammad Humayun Sultan. 



EeyEESE — -ji-*-^^ y^j"^ Struck at Kashmir. 



The year is effaced. It is curious that the letters of the reverse are 

 inverted, but they are easily made out by holding the coin before a looking- 

 glass. 



