104 Bhoja Ria of Dhir and his Homonyms. [No. 2, 
reconcile this statement with that of the Madhukarghar monument 
was found impracticable, and it was accordingly suggested that the 
latter may be cast overboard as well as the Bhoja-Pravandha and the 
Bhoja-Charita, inasmuch as we possess but a very imperfect para- 
phrase of it, and that prepared by an untrustworthy interpreter. 
The interpretation of the Nagpur record, however, has since been 
found to be even more untrustworthy than the paraphrase of Col. 
Tod’s pandits, and its roll of names to be in more than one instance 
quite illusory. This was pointed out by Professor Christianus Lassen 
in his notice of a copper-plate inscription brought from Sattara and 
decyphered by him.* 
The legend of the copper plate is, allowance being made for the 
Shastri’s errors, an exact counterpart of the stone tablet at Nagpur, 
and hence it has been supposed that the plate had been originally 
deposited in the same temple upon the portico of which the stone is 
affixed, and that it was subsequently removed to Sattara, most pro- 
bably, by the Marhattas, though the when and the why cannot now 
be satisfactorily ascertained. No facsimile of the document has yet 
been published, but from the satisfactory state of preservation of the 
original and the scrupulous care with which the Professor has examined 
it letter by letter, there can be no question as to its authenticity or 
of the general accuracy of its interpretation. 
Tt opens with a salutation to Saraswati, and after recounting the 
origin of the Pramavra race, states that in it was born a king of the 
name of Vairisifiha, “ who ruled the earth, shaming Indra in heaven 
by his prosperity.” His son and successor Siyaka had two children, 
Munja and Sifharaja, of whom Munja the eldest succeeded his 
father. How Munja died, the record explains not, but after describ- 
ing the might and heroism of his brother Sifharaja, makes his son 
Bhoja Raja assume the sovereignty. This Bhojat is no doubt the 
great king of the Bhoja-Prabandha, but his panegyrist has nothing 
to record of him besides a few unmeaning platitudes about great 
victories, unrivalled heroism, and so forth. No mention whatever is 
made of his “nine gems,” nor of the encouragement he offered to 
* Zeitserift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Vol. VII. p. 194. 
+ The Bediyas or Gypsies of India hold a Bhoja to be the founder of necro- 
mancy and jugglery, and the Bengali romance, Bhanumati, supports the idea. 
Phe common name of conjuration in Bengali is Bhojabaji or the feats of Bhoja, 
but no mention of it has been met with in any Sanskrit work. 
