12 N. N. Vasu— Meghegvara Inscription of Svapnegvara Deva. [No. 1, 
all in the temple. I am quite at a loss to determine liow he identified 
this with the Brahm© 9 vara slab. 
As far as I am aware nobody has yet deciphered the inscription 
under notice. 
This inscription was made under the older of Svapnegvara Deva, 
the founder of the temple of Meghegvara. The following occurs to¬ 
wards the end of the inscription :— 
1 The poet Udatana has by his ( Svapne 9 VAba’s) command composed 
hymns, ever delightful to the learned in consequence of their sweet 
collocation of words and plentiful figures of speech (Y, 33.) Can- 
dradhavala, the son of Dhavala YIra, wrote this eulogy in letters 
resembling gems upon this slab on the door of Meghegvara (Y, 35.) 
Qivakara, a Sutradhara , engraved these letters like unto a garland of 
gems on this stone-slab (Y, 36)/ 
It appears, General Stewart had taken away this slab from its 
proper place in the temple of Meghegvara. Subsequently Major Kittoe, 
yielding to the entreaties of the Pandas, placed it in its present posi¬ 
tion along with the inscribed slab of Ananta-Vasudeva. As to the 
Brahmcgvara inscription noted above, I made a most searching enquiry 
for it about the temples of Ananla-Yasudeva and Brahmegvara, with¬ 
out being able lo find out any trace of it anywhere. 
This Meghegvara slab measuring 3' 8f " by 1' 9", is incised with 
great neatness and care, and the letters are in a state of almost perfect 
preservation. The size of the letters is § ". 
The characters may be described as Bangali of the Kutila type of 
the 12th century, similar to the inscription of Ananta-Yasudeva, and 
very near to the characters of the copper-plate grant of Nrsimha Deva II 
with a somewhat archaic look. As in most other inscriptions of Bengal, 
Behar and Orissa, of that period, we find here no distinction between 
the letters b and v ; besides it may be noted that the superscript sign 
of r is invariably placed on the doubled consonants gg, nn, e.g., in 
margga line 22, sampurnna , line 23; and ll is sometimes used for Z, 
in llalata and llaksml , line 2. Instead of the anusvara, we have the 
dental nasal in Vansottansa, line 3, and the nasal rj in varjge , line 6 ; and 
the dental sibilant is used for the palatal sibilant in vansa , line 3 ; 
and the palatal for the dental, in grotah , line 1 . 
The language of the inscription is high-flown Sanskrit. Excepting 
the introductory blessing, the whole of the inscription is in verse. 
The inscription opens with an invocation of the god £'iva, Candra 
(the moon), and of the sage Gautama. It then relates :— 
‘ In that family of Gautama was born a prince (named) Dvaradeva, 
worthy of respect by the learned, the ornament of the world, possessed 
