Indian Epigraphy c11.t1.29

c11.t1.29

The earliest copper-plate charters of the usual type, so far discovered, come from the southern areas of India. They are the Prakrit charters of the Pallava kings of Kāncī, viz. the Mayidavolu and Hirahadagalli plates of Śivaskandavarman,⁵ both assignable to the middle of the 4th century A.D. The Gunapadeya plates⁶ of Pallava Skandavarman's time and the Kondamudi plates⁷ of Jayavarman, both from the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, the Basim (Akola District, Bombay State) plates⁸ of Vākāṭaka Vindhyaśakti II and the earliest charters⁹ of the Śālaṅkāyanas of Veṅgī should have to be assigned to the same century. In the north, the Dhanai-daha (Rajshahi District, North Bengal) plate,¹⁰ issued in the Gupta year 113 (433 A. D.) during the reign of the Gupta emperor Kumāragnpta I, is one of the earliest copper-plate grants as yet discovered. But a recently discovered plate of Īśvararāta, a ruler of the Kathiawad region, appears to belong to the end of the 4th century A.D.¹¹