Indian Epigraphy c11.t6.2

c11.t6.2

² Before this, some early copper-plate grants, especially of certain South Indian royal families (e. g. the Vākāṭakas, Pallavas, etc.), have the word *dṛṣṭam* (Prakrit *diṭhaṃ* or *diṭṭhaṃ*) meaning, ‘[It has been] seen’, to indicate that the original of the document on the plates had been examined by the proper authorities who found it allright. See *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 406, 412, 419, 433, 357, etc. In some early medieval charters of East India, e. g. those of the Pālas, the letter *ni* is found about the beginning or the end of the first line of writing or at its both ends. See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XV, p. 295, note 4; Vol. XXIX, pp. 2, 9, 49. This letter may be taken to be an abbreviation of *nibaddha* meaning ‘registered’, or, as we have seen, *nirīkṣita* which means ‘seen’ or ‘approved’ exactly as the word *dṛṣṭa* found in a similar position in certain South Indian grants referred to above. See *JAS, Letters*, Vol. XX, pp. 216-17. Cf. also above, pp. 92 ff., p. 125, note 4; below, pp. 149-50.