320 
Prann&th Pandit— Note on the Chittagong Copperplate. [No. 4, 
For the of this sloka I might refer to ^^^TfrT^^SfffTTlf^rr 
of the Chalukya grant in J. It. A. S., New Series, Yol. I, p. 268 ; ^T«TT^Jsnr*?T 
in the Chitradurg plate, where Colebrooke # has the note —“ solemn donations 
are ratified by pouring water into the hand of the donee.” The same 
inscription employs further on the phrase In sloka 7, 
the name of the prime minister is given as Srimad-datta-maha-mahattaka, 
of which compound Srimad is the usual honorific prefix ; datta, the patro¬ 
nymic ; and Maha-mahattalca , the proper name. The recipient of the gift is 
Sri-Prith ivi-d liar a - Sarin d, a Yajurvedi Brahman, As the Yajur-veda is 
pre-eminently the sacrificial Yeda, it is not surprising that a Brah¬ 
man of this school should be selected as the donee. The amount of the 
land given away is five Dronas, a term which is thus explained by Cole- 
brooke in a note on the Tipara copper-plate—“ A measure of land, still 
used in the eastern parts of Bengal, originally as much as might be sown 
with one dron'a of seed: for droida is a measure of capacity. (As. lies. 
Yol. Y., p. 96). The dron'a, vulgarly called dun , varies in different districts. 
It may, however, be reckoned nearly equivalent to eight bighas, or two 
acres and two-thirds.”f The measure is still prevalent in Eastern Bengal 
and Chittagong. The last word of the sloka has not been satisfactorily decy- 
phered. The reading adopted and translated is proposed by Babu Baj- 
endralala Mitra’s Shastri. But while on the one hand this leaves the last 
letter unexplained, to admit an additional one would destroy the metre. 
The portion in prose gives minute details about the plots of ground 
given away, but there is little or no hope of the sites being identified, so 
great has been the mutation of names owing to the Muhammadan conquest. 
I have in vain looked J at the survey map of the district. Lavanotsava- 
srama-sambdsa-bdti, has not, as far as I am aware, been met with anywhere 
else. Lavanotsava I take to mean some festival connected with the 
harvest; sambas a, I take to mean ‘ residence bdti, is compounded here as 
in Pushpabdti , Udganabati, and the like. This is the most satisfactory 
account that I can give of the compound. Ldla means ‘ red,’ and is here 
used as a term descriptive of the quality of the ground. Ndla (I supposed 
a phonetic corruption) is still used in Eastern Bengal to denote arable land 
in general. I may here mention that in the plate *T and are written 
exactly alike. 
The succeeding slokas are of frequent occurrence, and something like 
them is always put at the end of grants. The ninth sloka, for instance, 
occurs (with the variation of for ^tIt) in the Chalukya grant, at 
p. 270, Journal, Koyal Asiatic Society, New Series, Yol. I; in the Gfurjjara 
# Colebrooke’s Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II, p. 259. 
t Colebrooke, II, p. 245. 
J Mr, Clay instituted enquiries on the spot, but with the same result. 
