1897.] 
R. Hoernle — The Now gong Copper-plate. 
285 
The Noivgong Copper-plate Grant of Balavarman of Pragjyotisa in Asam .—- 
By Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle, C. I. E. 
(With Plates XXXV-XXXVII.) 
[Read November, 1897.] 
This grant was also sent to me by Mr. E. A. Gait, C.S., in May, 
1895. 1 It is said to have been found, some years ago, by a cultivator of 
Sutargao, a village in Mauza Kbatoalgao, on the right bank of the Kal- 
lang, opposite Puranigudam in the Nowgong district in Asam. 
In appearance the grant is very similar to the Gauhati one. 1 It 
consists of three copper-plates, each measuring Ilf by 7 inches. At the 
corners they are slightly rounded off ; and their rims are slightly turned 
up. The first plate is somewhat damaged at the corners, and here a 
very small portion of the inscription is lost. The obverse of the first and 
the reverse of the third plates are blank, the inscription covering the re¬ 
maining four sides of the three plates. There are 12 lines on each side, 
except on the last which has 13 lines. The letters are, as a rule, f- inch 
long. They are clearly, but rather superficially cut, and, in some places, 
so much worn as to be only legible with great difficulty and some un¬ 
certainty : the first four letters of the obverse of the second plate, indeed, 
are entirely worn away. 
The three plates are held together by a massive pear-shaped ring, 
which passes through large circular holes, near the middle of the margin 
of the left side of the plates. Round the holes large spaces are 
left blank, nearly 2 inches square, or the width of four lines of writing*. 
Attached to the ring is a massive seal, looking like a heart-shaped 
box, measuring 5 by 3f inches, without a lid. It is exactly like the seal 
of the Gauhati grant, and need not be further described. The figure 
on it is the same, an elephant en face. 
The grant bears a date, at the end of its last line; but unfortu¬ 
nately it is illegible. It reads samva X X vai X . After savnva there 
were either one or two signs, possibly numerical ones; vai may stand 
for vaigakhe ‘in the month of Va^akha’; after it there must have 
1 See my paper on the Gauhati grant, ante, p# 113. 
J. i. 37 
