1870.] Notes on Three Copper Sasanams. 155 



lias been kind enough to make inquiries for me in his district, and 

 I have received the following letter from him : — 



' Vizagapatam, I2tk May, 1869. 



' After making all inquiries on the subject of your letter of the 

 4th March, I regret to be unable to assist you in your researches. 

 The Sasanam in question was found near the village of Cheeparu- 

 pilli, but there are no traces in the neighbourhood of any Agraha- 

 ram called Kalvakondah. 



' There is a village called Dimila in the talook of Sarvassiddy, 

 about five miles from the coast, and about eighty-five miles to the 

 south of Cheepurupilli, which at one time was of more importance 

 than now, and may have been the head-quarters of a district.' 



"The present grant is not dated, but the period of Vishnu 

 Vardhanna's conquests is ascertainable from other sources. A 

 grant made by his grandfather Pulakesi, which is in the British 

 Museum, bears the date 411 of Salivahana's era, corresponding with 

 489, A. D., and a similar grant by his own brother, Satyashraya, is 

 in the possession of a Jaina Guru at Haidarabad, and bears the 

 date 534 of Salivahana, or A. D. 612. The date of No. 1 may 

 thus be fixed about the beginning of the 7th century A. D., and 

 this set of copper-plates will, therefore, be about twelve hundred 

 years old. 



" The language of this grant is Sanscrit, and the character in 

 which it is written, is a developed form of that which is found in 

 the inscriptions on the topes and caves of Central and Western 

 India. 



11 It appears from Mr. Master's letter to Government of the 30th 

 October, 1867, forwarding these copper-plates, that he had ' tried 

 every means of deciphering the characters by sending them to some 

 of the learned Pundits in the Maharaja of Vizianagram's service, 

 but without success.' Before attempting to decipher the plates 

 myself, I also similarly tried to find some one in Madras or the 

 neighbourhood who could read this character ; and I have been 

 equally unsuccessful. It is much to be regretted, that this and 

 other cognate ancient alphabets of India, should have become so 

 generally a dead letter, and that consequently the inscriptions on 

 grants like the present one, and on the walls of temples, &c, should 



