94 R. D. BANERJI ON 



dho evarn vadi mahatvamanah i Srl-mad = Rajagrha vinirggatch Etrahagramavasthitah 

 || Paramopasaka paramamahajan (anny) ayinah i Vanika Sadhu. 



(2) Saharanasya Sadhu Bhadulvasutasya yadatra puny ah \\ Tad-bhavatv-acaryopa.. 

 dhyaya-mata-pita purvvangama (m) krtva sakala (salva) raser-ajnana phalavaptayaiti 1 1 

 ParaynabhaUdrakci ParamsSvara Paramasm (?) 



(3) ta 1 Maharajadhiraja Sri-mad = Ramapaladevapada 



pravarddhamana-kalyana-vijayarajye satnvat 42 Asadha dine 30. 



The date is given in the decimal notation so that there remains no doubt about 

 its reading. The first numeral is certainly 4 and not 1. We find it in a contem- 

 porary inscription — the Eodh-Gaya inscription of the 74th year of the Laksmanasena 

 era.' The donor, Sadhu Saharana, was most probably Vaisya by caste and a 

 merchant by profession. Nothing was known about Ramapala and his times twenty 

 years ago. When Mr. Venis was editing the Kamauli grant of Vaidyadeva, he was 

 faced with great difficulties for want of materials.' 2 The date of Vaidyaveva's grant 

 was fixed by him on conjecture. Recent discoveries have proved beyond doubt, 

 that the grant must be placed half a century earlier. Ramapala's date was fixed 

 and the events of his reign made known by the discovery of the Ramacarita of 

 Sandhyakaranandi ' Nothing has been stated about, and the place of discovery of, 

 this unique manuscript, by the discoverer himself, in the introduction to his edi- 

 tion of the Ramacarita, but I have since its publication learnt on enquiry from him 

 that the manuscript was purchased in Nepal in 1897. The manuscript itself 

 consists of two different parts: — (1) The text, which is complete, and (2) the 

 commentary, which is incomplete but older than the text. It runs up to the thirty- 

 fifth verse of the second chapter of the text. The text of the work is written 

 in Bengali characters of the 12th or 13th centuries on strips of palmleaf. It is, 



. , „ Mahamahopadhyaya Hara Prasada Sastrl observes, written 



The text oi the Ramacarita. ...... _ 



in imitation of the Raghava-Pandavlya, in double entendre.* 



The difficulty of understanding such a work is apparent, and had it been dis- 

 covered without its commentary, it would have been of no use to historians 

 or antiquarians. The principal value of the discovery lies in the commentary. 

 The commentary is a mine of historical information, and supplies the details 

 of the events of Ramapala's reign. The style of the composition of the commen- 

 tary is highly ornamental prose, which makes it very 

 The Commentary. difficult for one to get at the truth. The text does not 



end after the death of Ramapala but continues to describe the events of the 

 reigns of his successors, Kumarapala, Gopala III, and Madanapala. If the second 

 part of the commentary is ever recovered, then an abundance of detail will be 

 available, about the events of the time of the three princes mentioned above. There 

 is very little doubt about the fact, that the author of the poem was obliged to 



write the commentary on it himself. The masses of details 

 which are called up by the use of single works, would have 



1 Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 346. « Epi. Ind., Vol. II, p. 348. 



3 Proc. A.S.B., 1900, p. 70. * Mem. A.S.B., Vol. Ill, p. 1. 



