98 



Note on a Copper Land Grant, by Jaya Chandra. 



The copper plate whence the accompanying reading in modern Sanscrit character 

 and translation are taken, was found near Fyzabad in the Oude, and a facsimile of it 

 was forwarded to me by Lieut. Col. Caulfield, then Resident at Lucknow. The land 

 grants of the donor, Raja Jaya Chandra, are not uncommon. In the first volume of 

 the Transactions of the Asiatic Society there is a notice by the late Mr. Colebrooke, 

 (p. 441,) of a grant by this Raja, which is however described at second-band • 

 - Without having seen the original," says Mr. Colebrooke, -no opinion can be 

 ottered as to the probable genuineness of this monument ; (date s. 1220, a d 1164) 

 the 'inscription is however consistent with chronology j for Jaya Chandra, who is des- 

 cribed in the Ayeen Acberi as supreme monarch of India, having the seat of his empire 

 at Canouj is there mentioned as the ally of Shehabuddin in the war with Prithair 

 Raja, or Pithora, about the year of the Hejira 588, or ,. D . u92; twenty-eight 

 years after the date of this grant." y ■ 



The date of the grant now published is s. 1243, or a. d. 1187, twenty-three 

 years subsequent to that of the same monarch noted by Mr. Colebrooke, and 

 only six years prior to the death of the ill-fated donor, which occurred a. d. 1193 

 With him expired the dynasty of the Rahtore princes of Canouj. 



The genealogy, as given in the grant now before us, differs only in the name of the 

 brst ancestor mentioned from that found in Mr. Colebrooke's grant. The name 

 is there Snpala, here Yasovigra, but the identity of the monarch, known under 

 these different appellations, has been already ascertained, and admitted by the 

 highest authorities, (As. Soc. Jour. vol. iii. p. 339). 



The phraseology of this grant is not different from those of Jaya Chandra, which 

 have been already discovered: the anathema against the resumers of land granted 

 in free tenure is remarkable for its peculiar bitterness. The plate, judging from 

 the facsimile, must be in high preservation, and the date it gives is valuable, as 

 bearing corroborative testimony to the accuracy of chronological data. 





