1878. J 
78 
A Copper-plate Grant from Banda.—By Rajendralala. 
Mitra, LL.D., C.I.E. 
(With a plate.) 
The Society is indebted to Mr. A. Oadell, Asst. Magistrate, Banda,, 
in the N. W. Provinces, for the sight of a Copper-plate found in Parganah 
Augasi of the Banda district. The plate measures 16i inches by 10|, 
and is in an excellent state of preservation. (See plate YI.) It is a 
hammered one ; very rough on the outer face, hut moderately smooth on 
the inscribed side. Bound its edges slips of metal have been very roughly 
and clumsily rivetted on to form a raised rim for the purpose of pre¬ 
venting the inscription from being easily rubbed oft. At the middle of 
the lower edge, close by the rim, is a round hole, half an inch in diameter. 
It was intended for a ring which bore the seal of the donor, and perhaps 
also held together two plates, one of which is missing. If a second plate 
did once exist, it was intended only as a cover for the first and bore no 
inscription, for the latter contains the whole of a deed of conveyance, with 
a colophon giving the name of the writer and engraver of the record, and. 
hitherto no document of the kind has been found which contains any thing 
after the name of the engraver. The record is inscribed longitudinally,, 
and comprises nineteen lines, the first four of which have a break in the 
• middle, caused by an outline figure of the goddess Rajalakshmi with two 
elephants standing on expanded lotuses, and pouring water on her head. 
The writing is of the Kutila type, but slender in body, and verging to the 
modern Nagari character. It records the grant of £ ten ploughs ’ of land in 
the village of Ramurada, which is situated in the circle of Sudali, to a 
Brahmana named Gabhanta S'arman, the son of Jata, the grandson of Satti, 
and great-grandson of Vapana, a member of the Yajasaneyi school of the 
Bharadvaja gotra, having the threefold Pravara of Bharadvaja, Angirasa, 
Varhaspatya, and an inhabitant of the village of Dhakari. The boundary 
of the plot is given in detail, and the date of the gift was Monday, the 5th 
of the waxing moon in the month of Magha, Samvat 1190 = A. C. 1135. 
The donor was Madanavarma Deva, a devout follower of S'iva. His 
immediate predecessor was Prithvivarma Deva, who had succeeded Kirti- 
varma Deva. 
The first monument of this line of princes was brought to the notice of 
the Society by Lieutenant William Price, in 1813. It was a large inscribed 
stone found on a rocky hill in the vicinity of the town of Mau, about ten 
miles from Chhattarpur. The record was in a bad state of preservation, and 
the transcript and translation of it published in the ‘ Asiatic Researches’ # 
* Yol. XII, pp. 359 et seq. 
K 
