164 
Two Copper-plate Inscriptions from Bdmanghati. [No. 3, 
The tablets record grants by*the princes of the Bhanja family, 
perhaps of the Mayurabhanj a dynasty of the Katak Tributary 
Mahals. The names of the donors are STi Banabhanja Deva and 
STi Bajabhanja Deva, the latter being the son of the former. One 
of the inscriptions bears a date, but the figures are so unclear as 
to leave us entirely in the dark. It looks like 65 Sam vat, and this 
Samvat, without doubt, is an era peculiar to the family, quite distinct 
from the Samvat of Vikramaditya of Ujjayini. The founder of the 
dynasty of the Bhanjas was one Virabhadra, and if my conjecture 
about the relation of the Bhanjas to Mayurabhanj a be correct, his 
descendants are perhaps still extant, and the villages they bestowed, 
may be identified with existing places. The names of the princes 
recorded in the inscriptions are— 
Virabhadra (founder of the dynasty) 
STi Kothyabhanja 
STi Digbhanja (?) 
STi Banabhanja Deva 
STi Bajabhanja Deva 
Virabhadra, the founder of the dynasty is stated to have found¬ 
ed several hermitages, and from the fact of a hundred millions of 
hermitages being in the place, it is in the inscriptions named Kottya , 
or a hundred million. 
This also appears to have been the name of a prince that fol¬ 
lowed Virabhadra. In the translation appended, Digbhanja is 
rendered as a surname of STi Banabhanja Deva. The passage 
in the insciiptions is so very ambiguous, that for the correct 
rendering of the same we must wait till the legends of the Mayur- 
bhanja family are obtained. That the Bhanja dynasty of these 
grants are identical with the Mayura-bhanja dynasty is further 
evident from the unexplained passage in both the tablets imp*! 
| having broken a pea-hen’s egg,” and also from names of the 
villages. Biahmanavasati is undoubtedly the ancient form of the Ba- 
manghatty of our maps, an important village in the Mayurabhanj a 
