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Indian Epigraphy c10: Chapter IV. Preparation and Preservation of Records

Indian Epigraphy c10

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Chapter IV. Preparation and Preservation of Records

1. Writing and Engraving

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The practices of writing the letters of a record with ink on a softer material and of scratching or engraving them on a hard substance were both popular in ancient India. The royal charters were generally written at first on a perishable material and then engraved usually on copper plates and occassionally on stones.

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In ancient and medieval India, specialised learning in various branches of the sciences and arts and in the sacred lore was more or less the monopoly of the Brāhmaṇa community. But secular learning of the three R's was available to the upper classes among the non-Brahmanical communities, members of which sometimes acquired proficiency in Sanskrit and produced poetical works of considerable merit.¹ Literate people of these classes often took the writer's profession and, as a result, the communities of professional writers gradually came into being even in the early period.

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¹ See the poems composed by the Māthura-Kāyastha brothers Jayasiṁha and Śivanābhaka in *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXII, pp. 336 ff.; Vol. XXXIII, pp. 31 ff., pp. 65 ff.

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The common expression for the writer of a document or the copyist of a manuscript was *lekhaka* which also indicated a professional clerk.² Often people of the Brāhmaṇa community also adopted this profession. Among copyists of manuscripts there are many Brāhmaṇas. Buddhist and Jain monks are known to have copied works of their religious literature.

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² Cf. the word *lipikara* in the inscriptions of Aśoka (*Select Inscriptions*, p. 40, text line 6; p. 53, note 9) and the designation *rāja-lipikara* sometimes occurring in early inscriptions (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. II, p. 102).

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In copper-plate grants, the writer is generally called Kāyastha¹ and Karaṇika² or Karaṇin³ (i.e. an officer belonging to the Karaṇa⁴ meaning ‘the office of administration’). The epigraphic records sometimes mention the Karaṇika-Brāhmaṇa⁵ and Karaṇa-Kāyastha.⁶ While early legal authorities⁷ mention Karaṇa as a tribe, medieval lexicons⁸ recognise Kāyastha and Karaṇa as synonymous terms meaning a ‘scribe’ or ‘a member of the writer class.’ These facts may suggest that the tribal people called Karaṇa adopted, in some parts of India, the profession of scribes while the Kāyasthas were originally a professional class of accountant-scribes, the whole group of writers being later crystallised into a sort of caste called Kāyastha or Karaṇa. The Persian word dabir, ‘writer’, is found in Indian epigraphs as dibira or divira.⁹ It was probably introduced into the western areas of India, which once came under the influence of the Śakas and the Sassanians of Iran.

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¹ The Kāyasthas first occur in the inscriptions of the Gupta age (cf. Select Inscriptions, p. 284; etc.). Vijñāneśvara explains the word occurring in the Yājñavalkyasmṛti (I, 336) as gaṇako lekhakaś=ca, i.e. an accountant-scribe, for which see also the Mahābhārata, II, 5, 72. The word kāya-stha literally means ‘one who stays in the body [of another]’. An officer who sat beside his master in discharging his duties and was generally the chief intermediary between his master and the latter’s clients may have been called Kāyastha because he was staying in the person of his master as it were. See Bhār. Vid., Vol. X, 1949, pp. 280 ff.

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² Ep. Ind., Vol. I, pp. 81, 129, 163, etc. Kielhorn explains Karaṇika as ‘a writer of a karaṇa (a legal document)’. The Karaṇika is the same as Karaṇattān (Sanskrit Karaṇastha?) of Tamil inscriptions (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXV, p. 132), mentioned along with Kaṇakku (Sanskrit Gaṇaka), i.e. the present day Karaṇam (accountant-scribe) of South India.

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³ Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 122; Harṣacarita, Nirnayasagar Press ed., p. 227.

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⁴ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIV, p. 128.

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⁵ Bhandarkar’s List, No. 350.

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⁶ See Ind. Ant., Vol. XVII, p. 13; Bendall, Cat. Sans. Budh. Mss., p. 70, No. 1364.

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⁷ Manusmṛti, X, 20; Yājñavalkyasmṛti, I, 92.

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⁸ Cf. Vaijayantī, p. 78, l. 147 (Karaṇa, writer of the king); p. 137, l. 4 (Karaṇa, writer); p. 137, l. 45 (Kāyastha, writer). The Karaṇa community of Orissa is similar to the Kāyasthas of Bengal and elsewhere in North India. For the mention of the Karaṇas in the early medieval inscriptions of Orissa, see Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIV, p. 175, text line 15.

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⁹ CII, Vol. III, p. 122 (Khoh plate of 496 A. D.); Ind. Ant., Vol. VI, p. 10; etc.

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As regards private records on stone, their text was usually prepared by a professional writer and a copy of it was given to the engraver who was generally a mason called a *sūtra-dhāra*, *śilākūṭa*, *rūpakāra*, *śilpin*, etc. The mason at first dressed the stone and drew the letters on it with ink, etc., under the supervision and guidance of the writer and then engraved the letters. Sometimes the professional writer himself copied the text of the document on the stone for the guidance of the engraver. We have some records, the letters of which are painted on stone, the intention of engraving them at a later date remaining unmaterialised.¹ The amount of carelessness noticed in a large number of private epigraphs on stone however indicates that often incompetent masons engraved the records without getting the letters drawn previously on the stone.

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¹ See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 168; above, p. 81.

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For royal records, a learned man of the court was engaged to prepare a fair copy of the text on a sheet of birch bark, etc., or to write it on the stone slabs or copper plates with ink or a pointed instrument. The copy of the document was written on a sheet of the size of the stone on which it had to be engraved. The text of a copper-plate grant was generally prepared by a high officer of the king, although the eulogistic poems appearing in medieval grants were composed by the court poets.

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The practice of writing the text of a document on the plates first in ink is clearly indicated by a copper plate discovered at Kasia (Gorakhpur District, Uttar Pradesh), which bears 13 lines of writing of which only the first is incised while the remaining 12 are written in black ink.² This was meant to facilitate the work of engraving and also to ensure the correctness of the inscription. In many of the cases, the writing was done by a professional scribe of the court and the engraver incised the letters according to the drawing, although sometimes, especially in the case of minor ruling families, the engravers themselves wrote the text on the plates or engraved the text on the plates without previously drawing the letters on them.

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² *An Rep. Arch. Surv. Ind.*, 1910-11, p. 74. This inscription must have been first written out in ink on the plate and then the plate was given to the engraver to cut the written letters into the metal.

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The Deopada stone inscription¹ of king Vijayasena of Bengal is known to have been engraved by a renowned artist named Śūlapāṇi who was the head of a guild of the artisans of Varendra (North Bengal) and enjoyed the feudatory title of Rāṇaka. The neat and beautiful incision of the inscription excites the readers' admiration. The Talagunda inscription,² which is a praśasti composed by Kubja, the court poet of the Kadamba king Śāntivarman of the Kannaḍa country, was written on the stone slab by the poet himself so that the engraver succeeded in performing his work neatly without committing mistakes. The number of inscriptions carelessly written and engraved is, however, by far larger than those written and engraved carefully.

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¹ Ep. Ind., Vol. I, pp 307 ff.

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² Ibid., Vol. VIII, pp. 31 ff. and Plate. See verse 34 of the record.

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On some early copper plates the letters are formed by means of dots instead of continuous strokes.³ The engraving on some copper-plate grants from South India is so shallow that the letters appear to have been scratched on them by a sharp-pointed needle, as on the palmyra leaves, probably after putting a layer of mud on the plates.⁴

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³ See the Taxila and Kalwan plates (ibid., Vol. IV, pp. 55 f. and Plate; Vol. XXI, p. 259 and Plate); above, p. 76.

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⁴ Cf. ibid., Vol. XXVII, Plates between pp. 128 and 129, 130 and 131; above, p. 76.

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According to Kalhaṇa's Rājatarangiṇī,⁵ the officer-in-charge of the preparation of documents at the Kashmirian court was called Paṭṭopādhyāya (i.e. a professional teacher in charge of the preparation of title-deeds), who belonged to the Akṣapaṭala department which Stein understands as the Accountant General's office and Bühler as the Record office or the Daftar or Court of Rolls.⁶ In inscriptions, a similar royal officer is sometimes mentioned as *Dharmalekhin*, *Śāsanika*, *Śāsanādhikārika*, *Śāsanādhikārin*, etc.¹

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⁵ V, verses 397 f.

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⁶ Cf. Bühler, Indian Palæography, p. 102; below, p. 99.

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¹ *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XVI, p. 208; Vol. XX, p. 315; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XI, pp. 115, 314; Vol. XXVIII, p. 189; etc.

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Often illiterate or semi-literate stone-cutters or goldsmiths were entrusted with the task of engraving records on stone or copper plates, and this fact accounts for the numerous errors noticed in a large number of epigraphs, especially those engraved on behalf of private individuals.² We have also many instances of badly engraved records even among royal charters, particularly those issued by minor ruling chiefs.³ The Banaras plate⁴ of Kalacuri Karṇa (c. 1040-71) offers an instance of an imperial charter written and engraved by irresponsible and incompetent persons. But the grant was made when the king was stationed at Prayāga (Allahabad) in the course of a tour of pilgrimage and it is possible that the work of engraving the charter was entrusted to a local artisan who could not read the writing of the draft properly. Usually, however, powerful kings had in their service trained and competent engravers who performed their work creditably. The minor errors noticed in the records of imperial ruling families are due generally to the scribes and not to the engravers.

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² See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 44 ff., p. 145; *JBRS*, Vol. XXXVII, Parts 3-4, pp. 7 ff.; Vol. XLI, Part 2, pp. 1 ff.; etc. According to the *Mitākṣarā* on the *Yājñavalkyasmṛti* (II, 89), a royal deed had to be written in correct and elegant language, although documents of ordinary people were not required to be written in correct Sanskrit and could be written in local dialects.

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³ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, pp 112 ff.; pp. 276 ff.; pp. 290 ff.; pp. 324 ff.; etc.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, Vol. II, pp. 305 ff.

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The name of the person who engraved the copper-plate grants is often mentioned in medieval records. The word for ‘engraved’ is generally *utkīrṇa* and rarely *utkīlita*, etc. These engravers were artisans styled the *pitalahāra*, *lohakāra* or *ayaskāra*, i.e. a brazier, blacksmith or coppersmith,⁵ the *sūtradhāra*, i.e. a mason,⁶ the *hemakāra* or *sūnāra*, i.e. a goldsmith,⁷ the *śilpin*, *vijñānin* or *vijñānika*, i.e. an artisan,¹ etc. In the inscriptions of the Ganjam-Srikakulam region, the engraver is often mentioned as the *akṣaśālin*, *ākṣaśālika*, *arkaśālin*, *akhasāle*, etc. This refers to the goldsmith caste now called Akasāle in the Telugu- and Kannaḍa-speaking areas.

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⁵ See ibid., Vol. IV, p. 170; *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XVII. pp. 227, 230, 236; etc.

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⁶ *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XV, p. 360.

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⁷ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. III, p. 314; *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XVIII, p. 17.

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¹ Cf. *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XVII, p. 234; Vol. XVI, p. 208.

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There were manuals for the guidance of the clerks for the preparation of documents. Kṣemendra Vyāsadāsa’s *Lokaprakāśa* shows how different kinds of bonds, bills of exchange (*huṇḍi*), etc., were to be drafted while the *Lekhapañcāsikā* indicates how private letters as well as land-grants, treaties, etc., should be drawn.² One such work entitled *Lekhapaddhati* containing numerous specimens of letters and documents of various kinds has been published in the Gaekwad Oriental Series. The *praśast-āvali* works of Mithilā deal with the epistolary art and contain forms of communications to be addressed to feudatory and imperial rulers, both indigenous and foreign, as well as to one’s feudatories, learned men, private citizens, etc. They also contain specimens of private communications. A notable work of this class is the *Patrakaumudī* ascribed to Vararuci.³

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² See Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 102.

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³ K.P. Jayaswal, *A Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in Mithila*, Vol. II, pp. 12-13, Nos. 71 ff., 85ff. Another work of the same kind is Dalapati’s *Yāvanaparipāṭyanukrama* (*Itihāsa*, Bengali, Vol. IX, pp. 71-72). Cf. below, p. 106.

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In the schools, pupils generally copied their text books from their teachers’ copies. Rich men used to engage professional scribes for copying manuscripts for them. These manuscripts were generally written with great care.

2. Illustration and Ornamentation

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Some medieval inscriptions contain illustrations of the artificial arrangement of the letters of verses in *bandhas* known as *padma-bandha*, *sarpa-bandha*, etc.⁴ In a few cases, the lotus symbol is found without letters in it.⁵ Sometimes the letters of an inscription, especially the signs above and below the letters, are given an ornamental shape.¹ In some cases, this was done in respect of only some of the letters.²

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⁴ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 85; cf. Plates facing pp. 28-29. See also ibid., Vol. XXXIV, Plate facing p. 82; Sreenivasachar, op. cit., Part II, Plate 49; Part III, Plates 22, 31.

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⁵ Sreenivasachar, op. cit., Part II, Plate 47.

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¹ See Ojha, op. cit., Plates XV and XXI.

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² Ibid., Plates XX and XXI.

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Sometimes the contents of the inscription are indicated by an engraved or sculptured representation. Thus the symbols of the sun and the moon or the stars are found incised on numerous medieval records in order to indicate that the epigraphs record grants made for as long a time as the sun and the moon or the stars would endure.³ Similarly the engraved representation of a female or a sow under a donkey on inscribed stone slabs indicates the curse that the father of a violator of the grant recorded would become a donkey and his mother a sow or that his mother would be molested by a donkey.⁴

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³ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXII, Plate facing p. 170; Sreenivasachar, op. cit., Part II, Plate 43. In the medieval records of the Andhra region, a figure of the Śivaliṅga is sometimes added to the above symbols. See Sreenivasachar, op. cit., Plate 52; ibid., Part III, Plates 28-29.

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⁴ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XII, Plate facing p. 28; Vol. XXXV, p. 187.

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The sculptured representation of one or more females with the right hands raised upwards or only of hands raised upwards (i.e. pointing to heaven) indicated that the inscriptions in question recorded the 'commitment of Satī by a lady or several ladies who went to heaven as a result of the meritorious act.⁵ Inscriptions recording the deaths of heroes in battle generally bear sculptures depicting a warrior sometimes as dead or as engaged in fighting.⁶ In many cases, the Satī- and hero-stones bearing such representations do not bear any inscription apparently because the meaning of the representations was easily understood.

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⁵ See, e.g., *Ancient India*, No. 9, Plate CXII, No. 1.

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⁶ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXX, Plate facing p. 279.

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Some other kinds of memorial inscriptions also bear sculptured representations of the persons concerned.⁷ An interesting class of these records depicts devotees offering their heads to a god or goddess.⁸

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⁷ Cf. *SII*, Vol. IX, Part i, Plate facing p. 20. For inscribed chāyā-stambhas, see *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXIV, p. 20. Cf. above, pp. 72-73.

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⁸ See, e.g., *Ancient India*, No. 9, Plate CXI.

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Besides the above kinds of ornamentation, some medieval records, especially copper plates, sometimes bear the representation of the royal crest instead of the regular seal¹ or the royal coat of arms.² Mention need not be made here of inscriptions which are labels to sculptures or are incised on the pedestals of images.

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¹ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 72; Vol. XXXII, Plate facing p. 156.

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² See *JAS*, Letters and Science, Vol. XXIII, pp. 13ff., Plate B.

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Manuscripts were sometimes illustrated.

3. Omission. Correction and Pagination

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In both manuscripts and inscriptions, a letter omitted by the scribe through oversight was generally written above or below the line near the spot of omission with or without any indication.³ Often letters or groups of them thus omitted were engraved in the margin and, in such cases, generally the number of the line, in which the matter written above or below the record would have to be read, was indicated by mentioning its number counted in the first case from the top and in the latter from the bottom.⁴ Sometimes the place of omission is indicated by a sign.⁵

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³ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 116, note 4; p. 120, note 1; p. 123, note 3.

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⁴ See, e.g., ibid., p. 122, note 2; p. 125, note 4; p. 126, notes 1, 4-7; p. 127, notes 2-3.

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⁵ See, e.g., the cases cited in the previous note.

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In line 31 of the Kalsī inscription (Rock Edict XII) of Aśoka, the passage *ti apaśalahā vā*, wrongly written originally, is struck out by cancellation strokes and the correction *pala-pāsaṃḍa-galahā va* is incised above the line.⁶ On copper plates, such passages are generally rubbed off by chiselling or beaten in by hammering and the correction re-engraved on the erasure.⁷ But a letter or a group of them, when detected to have been wrongly engraved, was sometimes altered to other letters without erasing the former.⁸ Old and invalid copper-plate records coming into the possession of the Government were no doubt melted in order to fashion new plates for fresh use.

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⁶ Hultzsch, op. cit., p. 42, note 14. For cases of scoring off on the copper plates, see, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 117, notes 1 and 3; p. 118, note 2; p. 119, notes 2, 3-4; p. 120, note 2; p. 123, notes 2, 4; p. 125, note 6; p. 126, note 2.

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⁷ See, e.g., *JAS*, Letters, Vol. XX, 1954, pp. 209 ff.; above, p. 76.

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⁸ cf. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXIV, p. 163, note 6.

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But occasionally the entire writing of an inscription on copper plates was beaten in by hammering and a totally new record was re-engraved on them. This kind of palimsests is often met with.¹ In manuscripts, wrong passages were often covered with turmeric paste and the erasure was either kept blank or the correction was re-written on it.

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¹ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXV, Plate facing p. 191; Vol. XXIII, Plate facing p. 106; above, p. 76.

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In later inscriptions and manuscripts, the spot of omission was indicated often by a small upright or inclined cross, generally called *kāka-pāda* or *haṃsa-pāda*.² Instead of the cross, the *svastika* symbol was also used.³

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² See, e.g., ibid., Vol. III, p. 52, Plate 2, line 1; p. 276, line 11.; above, p. 6.

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³ See, e.g., *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. VI, p. 32, Plate 3.

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In South Indian manuscripts, the cross was used also as an indication of intentional omission which, as well as defective passages in the original quoted in the commentaries, were marked elsewhere in the country by dots or short strokes above or beneath the line.⁴ The symbol of an ear-ring (*kuṇḍala*) or a *svastika* was sometimes used to mark unintelligible passages.⁵ A globular mark was sometimes engraved below a letter to indicate that it was wrongly engraved and should not be taken into account.⁶ A similar practice is referred to in Śrīharṣa’s *Naiṣadhīya*⁷ which speaks of a circle being drawn round a letter as a mark of cancellation.

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⁴ See Bühler, op. cit., p. 91.

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⁵ Loc. cit.; cf. Bühler’s *Kashmir Report*, p. 71; Kielhorn, *Mahābhāṣya*, Vol. II, p. 10, note.

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⁶ See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, p. 262 and Plate, text line 12 (cf. the mark below *pa* at the end of the line).

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⁷ See I, 14.; cf. *Journ. Or. Inst.*, Vol. III, pp. 267-68.

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The leaves of a manuscript, not their pages, were given consecutive numbers. The number of a leaf was usually put on its reverse except in the southern areas where it was generally written on the obverse of the leaf.⁸ In royal charters engraved on more than two copper plates, the numbering of the plates is sometimes noticed. Such multiplate royal records were more popular in the central and southern regions of India and only in some cases the plates are numbered. Sometimes they bear the numbers on the obverse as in the case with the southern manuscripts;¹ but the first plate, with its obverse often blank, bears the number on the reverse.² In rare cases, the obverse and reverse of a plate in multiplate records are both numbered as in the case of a modern book.³

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⁸ See Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 92.

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¹ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. I, pp. 1 ff.; Vol. III, pp. 156, 300; *Select Inscriptions*, Plates between pp. 408 and 409.

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² See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, Plates between pp. 4 and 5.

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³ See, e.g., ibid., Vol. VI, pp. 86 ff. and Plates.

4. Auspicious Symbols

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A *maṅgala*, i. e. a benediction or an auspicious word, at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a composition was believed to ensure its completion and preservation. The auspicious word *siddham* is found at the beginning of numerous early records.⁴ This word was in later times generally indicated by a symbol of varying shape. The symbol was sometimes followed by the auspicious word *svasti* which, in some cases, stands singly at the beginning of epigraphic records.⁵ Sometimes the *maṅgala*: *siddhir=astu*, having the same import as *siddham*, as also a bigger *maṅgala* sentence beginning with *svasty=astu*, is found at the end of the documents.⁶ In some cases again a symbol, which is apparently a variant of the *siddham* sign, appears at the end of a document and, in rare cases, also in the body of its text especially at the end of a section of it.⁷ Besides the *siddham* symbol, various other auspicious symbols also appear in inscriptions.

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⁴ See, e.g., *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 157, 160, 164, 165, 169, 176, 191, 193, 196, 200, 203, 204, 205, etc. For the contractions *sdha* and *sdhi*, see ibid., pp. 150, 156.

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⁵ See, e.g., ibid., p. 331, text line 1; p. 403, text line 1; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, Plate facing p. 62, text line 1; etc.

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⁶ See, e. g., *Select Inscriptions*, p. 297, text line 24; p. 385, text line 41; p. 409, text line 30; p. 327, text line 9; p. 397, text line 8; p. 441, text line 55; p. 455, text line 15.

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⁷ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. III, p. 129, Plate, text line 24; *Select Inscriptions*, p. 457.

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Al-Bīrūnī regarded the auspicious symbol at the beginning of inscriptions as indicating the *praṇava* or the sound *Om*.⁸ N. K. Bhattasali challenged the authority of Al-Bīrūnī and suggested that the symbol indicates *siddham* or *siddhir-astu*.² There is no doubt that the symbol stood for the word *siddham* found at the beginning of numerous early inscriptions. But there is evidence to show that sometimes the symbol was pronounced as *Oṃ siddhiḥ*² and Al-Bīrūnī seems to have confused this *Oṃ siddhiḥ* with *Oṃ*. Instances of such confusion are also noticed in Indian epigraphs like the Baud plates³ of Raṇabhañja which begin with the symbol followed by the word *siddhiḥ* and the Belabo plate⁴ of Bhojavarman, which has the symbol followed by *Oṃ siddhiḥ* at the beginning. The symbol was generally used till recent times in the eastern areas with the sign of nasalisation placed above the Bengali figure for 7 or as the figure 4 as found in medieval inscriptions from Bengal.⁵ The sign is called *pillaiyār śuli* (Gaṇeśa's curl) in Tamil.⁶

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⁸ Sachau, *Alberuni's India*, Part I, p. 173.

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² Certain medieval charms, composed in the form of royal charters, have *Oṃ siddhiḥ* at the beginning, which is apparently the pronounced form of the symbol at the commencement of numerous inscriptions including copper-plate grants. See *Proc. IHC*, 1939, pp. 471 ff. See also below, p. 95.

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³ *IHQ*, Vol. X, p. 475.

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⁴ Majumdar, *Ins. Beng.*, Vol. III, p. 19.

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⁵ Cf. *Proc. IHC*, 1939, p. 471; *IHQ*, Vol. XXXIII, p. 103 and Plate facing p. 102; P. N. Bhattacharya, *Kāmarūpaśāsanāvalī*, p. 55. See below p. 96.

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⁶ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVII, p. 352, note. See below, p. 96.

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The *svastika* (of both the *vām-āvarta* and *dakṣiṇ-vārta* types) and taurine symblols are found in Aśoka's separate edicts at Jaugaḍa.⁷ The triskele symbol, which is a modification of the *svastika*, is found at the beginning of the Erraguḍi and Rājula-Maṇḍagiri M. R. Edicts of Aśoka.⁸ The *svastika* is also found at the beginning and the end of many other records generally belonging to dates earlier than the 3rd century A.D.⁹ While occurring at the beginning of a document, it is sometimes placed before, and rarely after, the word *siddham*¹⁰ (*sidha*, *sidham*, etc. in Prakrit and sometimes in contractions like sdha or sdhi). At the beginning of the Hāthigumphā inscription, the svastika appears beneath a crown-like symbol called *śrīvatsa*, while the inscription ends with the ‘tree-within-railing’ symbol.¹ Other symbols found in some cases are the trident or triratna resting on the dharma-cakra,² and the lotus.³ The praṇava, generally represented by a symbol, is sometimes found at the beginning of medieval inscriptions.⁴

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVII, p. 352.

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⁷ See *Corp. Ins. Ind.*, Vol. I, Plate facing p. 116.

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⁸ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, Plates facing pp. 221, 216; Vol. XXXII, Plate facing p. 6.

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⁹ See, e.g., ibid. Vol. VII, Plate III (No. 6) facing p. 76; Plate VII (No. 16) facing p. 88; etc.

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¹⁰ Ibid., Plate III (No. 6) facing p. 76, and Plate IV (No. 10) facing p. 78.

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¹ Cf. Select Inscriptions, Plate facing pp. 208 and 209; above, p. 5, notes 3-4.

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² Above, p. 5, note 2.

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³ See, e.g., Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, Plates facing pp. 96, 150, 151; Vol. XIX, p. 81, text line 41; Plate facing p. 60, text lines 6, 16, 20; Vol. XXX, p. 219, text line 11; Vol. XXXI, p. 128, text lines 205 and 212; Corp. Ins. Ind., Vol. III, No. 63.

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⁴ See, e.g., Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 165. The symbol usually looks like ō, om, aum, etc., as written in the East Indian (Bengali) script.

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In early medieval epigraphs and manuscripts, a circle, with a smaller circle or dot (or dots) inside, sometimes indicates fullstop. As the circle with a central dot is the old Brāhmī letter tha, modified forms of the same letter came to be used in later times.⁵ In some medieval records, the symbol stands midway between tha and cha,⁶ and this confusion led to the growth of the popular use of the letter cha as the concluding mark at the end of literary or epigraphic records and sections thereof.⁷ Cha is recognised in this capacity in early medieval works like Śrīharṣa’s Naiṣadhīya⁸ and Hemacandra’s Ekākṣarakoṣa.⁹ Sometimes the auspicious word śrī also appears in the same way at the end of documents.¹⁰

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⁵ See, e.g., ibid., Vol. XVIII, p. 298, text line 30; Vol. XIX, p. 81, text line 41; Plate facing p. 331, text line 21; Vol. XXX, p. 125, text line 17; Vol. XXXI, p. 166, text line 20 (not śrī ; but cf. p. 16). The same symbol is found in some old Jain manuscripts as a circle with a globular mark at the centre and drawn under a horizontal line. See Journ. Or. Inst., Baroda, Vol. III, No. 4, June 1954, p. 368.

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⁶ See Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, p. 80, text line 38.

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⁷ Ibid., Vol. XXIII, pp. 140-41 (text lines 4 and 15); Vol. XXV, p. 63 (text line 94), p. 221 (text line 141); etc. It is really not a variety of the siddham symbol (as stated in op. cit., Vo. XXX, p. 218).

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⁸ XVI, 98; cf. Journ. Or. Inst., Vol. III, p. 368.

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⁹ Cf. verse 13.

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¹⁰ See, e.g., Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXI, p. 16, text line 26. Medieval South and West Indian records often end with maṅgalam mahā-śrīḥ sometimes preceded by śubham bhavatu. They begin with svasti jayaś-ca-abhyudayaś-ca.

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In the inscriptions of the Gupta age, the auspicious word siddham at the beginning of epigraphs was sometimes represented by a crescent-like curved stroke opening towards the left.¹ This mark resembles the symbol or mark of interpunction at the end of many of Aśoka's edicts at Kalsi. It has been pointed out that some scholars regard it as standing for the *praṇava*, i.e. the auspicious syllable *oṃ*, even though the sign occurs in typical Buddhist epigraphs and the Buddhists did not attach any importance to the *praṇava*.² We have seen above that, though this view is supported by a statement of Al-Bīrūnī,³ there is some evidence to show that the symbol was read as *siddham* or *siddhir-astu*.⁴ The suggestion seems to be supported by the fact that some medieval inscriptions begin with the symbol followed by a *namaḥkāra* passage like *Oṃ namaḥ, Oṃ namaḥ Śivāya, Oṃ namo Nārāyaṇāya, Oṃ namaḥ śrī-Viśveśvarāya*, etc.,⁵ and also by the *maṅgala*: *Oṃ svasti*.⁶ We have explained the confusion of the symbol with the *praṇava* by the fact that sometimes it was read as *Oṃ siddhiḥ*.⁷

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¹ See, e.g., *Corp. Ins. Ind.*, Vol. III, Nos. 11 (Plate VI A), 20 (Plate XII B); etc.

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² Ibid., p. 46, note 3.

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³ See Sachau, *Alberuni's India*, Part I, p. 173.

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⁴ Cf. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVII, p. 352; *Proc. IHC.*, 1939, pp. 471 ff.

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⁵ See, e. g., Majumdar, *Ins. Beng.*, Vol. III, pp. 46, 61, 71, 85, 94, 101, 109, 121, 133, 143; *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XI, p. 242; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. II, p. 305; Vol. XXXIV, p. 81.

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⁶ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIX, Plate facing p. 192, text line 1.

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⁷ In rare cases, the symbol is followed by the word *siddhiḥ* or *Oṃ siddhiḥ* as we have already noticed above (p. 93). Cf. also the text of the *mantra* (in the shape of a royal charter) beginning with the *maṅgala*: *Oṃ siddhiḥ | guru-pādebhyo namaḥ | svasti |* (*Proc. IHC.*, 1939, p. 472).

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The symbol was gradually modified to the shape of a stroke slanting towards lower right with its top curved or looped inwards to the right⁸ or slanting towards lower left with its top curved or looped inwards to the left.⁹ Sometimes the lower end of the stroke exhibits an ornamental downward flourish¹⁰ or upward bend.¹¹ Both the *vām-āvarta* and *dakṣiṇ-āvarta* types were used in some cases in records of the same locality and also of the same age.¹ In the medieval inscriptions of Eastern India, the symbol resembles the Bengali numerical figure 7 ( a vertical stroke with its top curved towards the left and ending in an inward bend)² and it was used in the central parts of Bengal with the addition of a sign called *candra-bindu* or *ānunāsika* above. But, in the easternmost areas of Bengal, the same symbol was written with the lower end curved considerably towards the right and was called *āñji*,³ and the Bengali alphabet with this symbol at the head was called *āñji-ka-kha*.⁴ In Western India, however, the symbol appearing in medieval inscriptions looks like a numerical figure⁵ and often a globular mark looking like a cypher is placed after it.⁶ In South Indian records of the early and medieval periods, the symbol is often a *śām-āvarta* spiral,⁷ sometimes resembling the representation of a conch-shell, which is called *pillaiyār-śuḷi* or Gaṇeśa’s curl and is first taught to the children before they begin to learn the alphabet.⁸

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⁸ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVII, Plate facing p. 328, text line 1; Vol. XXVIII, Plate facing p. 50, text line 1; Plate facing p. 112.

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⁹ See, e.g., ibid., Vol. XXVIII, Plate facing p. 66, text line 1; Plate facing p. 84, text line 1; Plate (B) facing p. 183.

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¹⁰ See, e. g., ibid., Vol. XXVIII, Plate facing p. 50; Vol. XXIX, Plate facing p. 88; Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 266.

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¹¹ See, e. g., ibid., Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 72.

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¹ See, e. g., the Valgudar (Monghyr District, Bihar) inscriptions illustrated in *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, Plate facing p. 145.

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² See, ibid., Vol. XXX, Plates facing pp. 186, 236. Cf. above, p. 93.

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³ *IHQ*, Vol. XXXIII, p. 103.

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⁴ P. N. Bhattacharya, *Kāmarūpaśāsanāvalī*, p. 55.

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⁵ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 72.

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⁶ See, e.g., ibid., Vol. III, Plate (middle) facing p.306; Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 14, text line 1; Vol. XXX, Plate facing p. 191.

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⁷ See, e. g., ibid. Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 233.

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⁸ Ibid., Vol. XVII, p. 352, note. Cf. above, p. 93.

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Certain Nepal inscriptions exhibit auspicious symbols representing the conch-shell, the lotus, the bull, the fish, the sun-wheel and the stars.⁹ In the medieval epigraphs of the Andhra region, the lotus symbol is sometimes found about the beginning.¹⁰

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⁹ *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. IX, pp. 163 ff. For the conch-shell in other records, see *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXV, Plate facing p. 236; and for the lotus, see *JAS*, Letters, Vol. XVIII, 1952, pp. 77 ff., Plate II.

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¹⁰ Cf. P. Sreenivasachar, *A Corpus of Inscriptions*, Part II, Plates 37, 41.

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The Kailvan (Patna District, Bihar) inscription¹¹ of about the second century A.D. exhibits four symbols between the beginning and the end of a circular line of writing. These are a long-necked pitcher, a double *svastika* (one of the *vām-* āvarta and the other of the *dakṣiṇ-āvarta* type), and another looking like a sacrificial altar. At the end of the Guakuchi copper plate grant¹ of king Ratnapāla of Assam, there are the representations of a bird (*Garuda*) carrying a snake, the lotus, the conch-shell and the discus, all connected with the god Viṣṇu.

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¹¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, Plate facing p. 231.

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¹ P. N. Bhattacharya, *Kāmarūpaśāsanāvalī*, Plate facing p. 140.

5. Preservation of Copper-plate Grants

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Copper-plate grants were very valuable documents for the donees and their descendants, since their loss or destruction rendered the revenue-free holdings, created by them, ordinary rent-paying lands unless fresh charters were issued in the place of the old ones. There are instances of charters written on plam leaves or engraved on copper plates being destroyed by fire and the re-issue of copper-plate grants by the later rulers of the territories in question.² The donees therefore preserved the documents received from the donors generally with special care.

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² See the Kurud plates of Narendra (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 267) and the Dubi and Nidhanpur plates of Bhāskaravarman (ibid., Vol. XXX, p. 290). See below, p. 106.

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Monks dwelling in artificial caves sometimes engraved the texts of the copper-plate grants, received by them in respect of rent-free lands, on the walls of the caves.³ In the ruins of the ancient city of Valabhī at modern Wala in Kathiawar, copper-plate charters have been found immured in the walls or foundations of the houses of the donees or their descendants, while in many places the charters have been dug out from the fields, to the donation of which they refer, usually hidden in small caches made of bricks.⁴

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³ See *Proc. IHC*, Lahore, 1940, pp. 54 ff.; below. p. 106.

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⁴ Cf. Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, pp. 99-100.

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Sometimes several documents were preserved together. An urn containing four sets of copper plates was dug out from the ground near the foot of a tree at the village of Andhavaram in the Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh.⁵ The grants were issued by different rulers of different ages to different donees and may have been interred in the ground when the owners left the village at one time on an occasion like pilgrimage. The sets of plates were suspended by means of an iron rod passing through their seal-rings, which was inserted across the deliberately broken rim of the urn having a wide circular mouth. The urn was covered by a hemispherical lid and the plates, kept inside it in paddy-husk, were found in a good state of preservation.¹

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⁵ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 175 ff.

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¹ For the preservation of copper plates in paddy-husk, see also *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVII, p. 268 and note 2. The interment of copper-plate grants may be compared to that of coins. In the pre-British days, life and property were generally insecure and hiding one's valuables under the earth was a common practice because there were no banks of the modern type.

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Sometimes the plates were preserved in a specially made stone casket or coffer. Thus the Kalegaon plates² of Yādava Mahādeva were found inside a stone box made of two slabs of stone firmly joined together. The upper slab measures 22 inches by 15½ inches by 7 inches and has a hollow (4½ inches in depth) curved in the inner surface of it while the lower slab measures 24 inches by 16½ inches by 7 inches with a similar hollow (1½ inches deep) in its upper surface. The set of three plates, each measuring 15 inches by 11 inches by ¼ inch and together weighing 1075 tolas, was found inside the box which was dug out of the ground.

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² See ibid., Vol. XXXII, pp. 31-32.

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There are instances of copper-plate grants being discovered at localities far away from their places of issue. Thus the Kamauli plate³ of Vaidyadeva is a record which was issued by a ruler of Assam in respect of a gift of land in favour of a Brāhmaṇa, but was discovered at a place near Banaras. It is possible that the donee or one of his descendants in this case settled at Banaras at a later date, although it is difficult to determine whether he was still enjoying the gift land or had sold it out. If the land had been sold out, the plate was only of some sentimental value to him. It is also not impossible that he went to Banaras on pilgrimage and carried the plate with him as a valuable possession, but could not return home owing to sudden death.

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³ See Bhandarkar's List, No. 1636.

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The originals of the grants from which the plates were prepared, probably written on perishable material, must have been preserved in the records office of the kings. As we have seen, an officer called Akṣapaṭalika, very often mentioned in inscriptions, is regarded by some as an Accountant and by others as a Record-keeper,¹ though he may have served in both the capacities. The store-room of original grants in a king's Akṣapaṭala department is probably called the phalaka-vāra (literally, ‘the store-house of plates’) in a Nasik inscription² of the 2nd century A. D.

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¹ Stein, Rājatar., trans., V, 249, 397 and notes; above, p. 86.

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² Cf. Select Inscriptions, p. 160.

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A smaller officer called Pustapāla or Pustakapāla, literally ‘the keeper of books (i.e. records)’, is mentioned in such records as those of the Bhuama-Karas of Orissa.³ Another officer mentioned in the records of the same area is the Peṭapāla, Peṭṭapāla, Peḍāpāla, etc. (literally ‘the keeper of the boxes [containing records]’) who apparently served under the Pustapāla.⁴

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³ Cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIX, p. 88, text line 20. For the earlier mention of the Pustapāla in Bengal records of the Gupta age, see Select Inscriptions, p. 285, text line 10: etc.

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⁴ Bhandarkar’s List, No. 2041 (Peṭapāla). Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVIII, p. 216, text line 21 (Peṭṭapāla); Vol. XV, p. 5, text line 3; (Peḍāpāla), etc.

6. Treatment of Letters

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The custom of wrapping up letters in cloth and of sealing the packet is referred to in the Jātakas.⁵ According to Bāṇa's Harṣacarita,⁶ the lekhahāraka or lekhahāra (i.e. letter-carrier) tied each packet separately to a strip of cloth and wound the cloth round his head. Ordinary letters written on palm leaf or birch bark were folded, the ends of the leaves or sheets being split and joined and the whole being tied up with a thread.⁷

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⁵ Fausböll, Jātaka, Vol. II, p. 173 ff.

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⁶ Nirnayasagar Press ed., pp. 58, 167. See also p. 66 above.

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⁷ Cf. Buhler, Indian Palaeography, p. 100.

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A number of royal seals, both metallic and earthen, belonging to kings, who had their capitals far away from Bihar, have been discovered at Nalanda in the Patna District of Bihar.¹ It appears that these seals accompanied the letters of the kings in question, which were addressed to the head of the Buddhist establishment at Nalanda. It also seems that the seals were either tied up with the letters or were carried by the letter-carriers separately in order to prove to the addressee the genuineness of the letter he received. A person carrying a verbal message also carried a seal or a ring bearing the name of the sender of the message, which had to be shown to the person to whom the message was to be delivered.² This sort of token was generally called *abhijñāna*. Some of the Nalanda seals are big and heavy and could not have been carried by the letter-carriers on their heads along with the letters, since they came from a great distance. These therefore should better be regarded as *abhijñānas* carried by the messengers separately.

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¹ Cf. *Mem. ASI*, No. 66, pp. 64 ff.

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² See *Rājatar.*, VI, verses 33-36.

7. Preservation of Manuscripts

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Manuscripts were preserved in a library called *Bhāratī-bhāṇḍāgāra* or *Sarasvatī-bhāṇḍāra* (literally, ‘the store-house of the goddess of learning’). Books written on palmyra leaves or on bark or paper sheets had wooden covers on the top and bottom and the whole was tied up with a string. Often this string passed through the leaves or sheets and sometimes also the covers through holes made in them and was wound round the cover and knotted. These practices are referred to by Al-Bīrunī³ and Bāṇa.⁴ In Nepal, the covers of important manuscripts were often made of embossed metal and manuscripts were wrapped up in dyed or embroidered cloth.⁵ In Jain libraries, palmyra-leaf manuscripts were often kept in small sacks of cloth, the sacks being preserved in small boxes of white metal. We have noticed above that, in Kashmir, manuscripts were sometimes bound in leather and kept on shelves in accordance with Muhammadan practice.

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³ Sachau, *Alberuni’s India*, Part I, p. 171; cf. above, p. 62 and note 1.

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⁴ Nirnayasagar Press ed., p. 95, referring to *sūtra-veṣṭana* of a manuscript. See above, p. 62, note 1, for *sūtra* or *śarayantraka*.

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⁵ Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 99.

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In the libraries attached to colleges, royal courts and monasteries, the manuscripts were generally preserved in boxes of wood or cardboard under the charge of a librarian. The collections of such libraries were often catalogued. Individual scholars are also known to have sometimes possessed good collections of manuscripts.

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Among royal libraries, mention may be made of the celebrated collection of the Paramāra king Bhoja (c. 1000-55 A.D.). In the first half of the 12th century, the Caulukya king Siddhārāja Jayasiṃha (c. 1094-1144 A.D.) conquered Malwa and carried away the books of Bhoja’s library to Anhilwada where they were apparently amalgamated with the Caulukya collection of manuscripts. The Caulukya royal library at Anhilwada is often mentioned in the 13th century works. The Caulukya-Vāghelā king Visaladeva (Viśvamalla, c. 1244-62 A.D.) is stated to have supplied a copy of Śrīharṣa’s Naiṣadhīya to Vidyādhara for writing his commentary on it and also a copy of Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra to Yaśodhara who composed the Jayamaṅgalā commentary on it. A copy of the Rāmāyaṇa in Visaladeva’s collection is known to be preserved now in the library of the University of Bonn, West Germany.¹

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¹ See Bühler, Indian Palaeography, p. 99.

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As regards libraries of individual scholars, it is interesting to note that, in the early years of the 7th century, Bāṇa in his Harṣacarita mentions his pustaka-vācaka or ‘the reader of books’ and describes the latter’s manipulation of a manuscript of the Vāyu Purāṇa.² There were numerous collections of manuscripts pertaining to individual scholars or families of scholars in all parts of the country. One of the biggest such libraries of the medieval age was the collection of manuscripts made by Kavīndrācārya Sarasvatī (16th-17th century) at Banaras. A manuscript of Vāmana's *Kāvyālaṅkāra* in Kavīndrācārya's collection bears the seal of Prince Salīm (the earlier name of the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr, 1605-27 A. D.). Some of the works mentioned in the old catalogue of manuscripts in Kavīndrācārya's library are not available now.¹

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² Nirnayasagar Press ed., p. 95.

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¹ M. Krishnamachariar, *History of Classical Sanskrit Literature*, pp. 390 b-c.

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According to the Purāṇas, it was a sacred duty of rich men to make donations of books to temples and other institutions.² Such donations were obligatory on the followers of the Buddhist and Jain creeds.³ There is evidence to show that both local scribes as well as copyists hailing from the neighbouring territories were employed for the purpose of copying manuscripts.⁴

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² See Hemādri's *Dānakhaṇḍa*, pp. 544 ff.

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³ Cf. Bühler, op. cit., p. 99.

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⁴ Cf. *IHQ*, Vol, XXX, p. 387; see also above, p. 88.

Linked texts (42)