40 Facsimiles of Ancient Inscriptions* [Jan. 



Copperplate Grant from Bdkerganj. 



This plate was presented in November last, to the Society, on my soli- 

 citation, by Baboo Conoylal Tagore, in whose possession it had re- 

 mained for some months previous, having been dug up in the char land, or 

 land deposited by river inundation, of a zemindari or estate belonging to 

 him in perganna Edilpur, zilla Bakerganj about 120 miles directly east 

 of Calcutta. 



No little curiosity has been astir among the Baboos of Calcutta to 

 ascertain the contents of this curious document, as it is I believe the first 

 that has been discovered treating of the Belldla kings of Bengal. I should 

 not have thought it possible from the appearance of the copper, which is 

 in perfect preservation, and still sharp in the letters, that the plate could 

 have been long buried in the place where it is stated to have been found. 

 The seal, which is an elaborately executed.figure of Siva cast in copper, of 

 great delicacy and taste, is uninjured by time even in the minute limbs and 

 weapons which protrude undefended from the trunk. I have given a very 

 rough sketch of this seal in PI. II. of the natural size, and certainly it 

 bears evidence of having been somewhere preserved with the greatest 

 care for the seven centuries which have transpired since it was engraven, 

 and of its having been only recently buried in the alluvial ground, 

 perhaps by the upsetting of some boat traversing the spot during the 

 inundation. 



Seeing the depth and perfection of the engraving, I endeavoured to print 

 off directly from the plate a facsimile of the writing on both sides, by 

 inking the surface with printer's ink and carefully pressing upon it a mois- 

 tened sheet of paper :-— the impression thus taken I immediately passed 

 between rollers with a plain sheet so as to obtain a reversed or rather 

 rectified facsimile fit for transfer to a lithographic stone. With the assis- 

 tance of the officers of the government lithographic press I at length suc- 

 ceeded in effecting the triple transfer with tolerable success, retouching 

 the writing on the stone where the letters had become too much filled up 

 by the operation. We have thus in PL III. a copy of the whole which, 

 though imperfect in the finer strokes is legible throughout, and more 

 trustworthy than any copy made by the eye alone. M. Jacquet of Paris, 

 I fancy, employs the same method in lithographing inscriptions both from 

 plates and stones. Their size renders the latter inconvenient. 



The character of this inscription is rather less simple than the earlier 

 alphabets of the Pdla dynasty. It is strictly the Gaur character whence 

 has descended the modern written Bengali*. 



* It is much to be regretted that when first a fount of Bengali type was prepay 

 red, the letters were made after the model of the running hand or writing instead 

 of this which may be called the print hand. Had the latter been taken, the dif- 



