282 G. M, Laskar— Klmrda Copper-Plate Grant of Madhava. [No. 3, 
The Khtirda Copper-Plate Grant of Madliava , King of Kalinga.—By 
Ganga Mohan Laskar, M.A. 
(With Plate VI) 
[Read January* 1904.] 
This set of three copper-plates comes from Khurda in Orissa and 
forms the second record ever discovered of King Madhava and of the 
S'ailodbhava dynasty from which he sprang; the only other known 
record of this dynasty is a copperplate charter of the same king, Ma¬ 
dhava, found in the Buguda village of the Goomsur taluk in the Ganjam 
District. Dr. Kielhorn has given an account of the Buguda plates in the 
Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III., pp. 41-46. 
The new record consists of three plates strung together by a cir¬ 
cular ring, the ends of which are secured in a seal. Each plate is 
long, 2f" broad and T V' thick. The ring is 3 inches in diameter and 
f inch in thickness. The seal is parabolic and contains, in relief, the 
figure of a bull and the words “ STih-Sainyabhitasya ” (of the glorious 
Sainyablnta). All the plates are inscribed, the middle one on both 
sides. The engraving is deep and legible. 
I have completely deciphered this inscription. A small strip of 
metal has broken off from the right-hand margin of the middle plate ■ 
but the loss of a few letters caused thereby can almost entirely bo sup¬ 
plied from the context. By this charter Madhava grants lands in the 
village of Arahanna or (Arahanna) in the Thorana district or visaya 
to a Brahman named Prajapatisvamin. 
This grant like the previously published one is without date. The 
names of kings mentioned in these charters are not met with in any 
other record. So palaeography is our only guide in fixing the date. 
The characters of the Khurda plates belong to the Kutila variety 
of Nagari, and are similar to those used in the Apshad inscription 
of Adityasena. But the former show several more archaic forms, 
and have the vowel-marks and matras (horizontal top-strokes) less 
developed. Hence the new inscription seems to be a little older 
than the Apshad inscription. The Apshacl inscription has been 
