Indian Epigraphy c11.t8.33

c11.t8.33

Often it is difficult to interpret with certainty whether the word *likhita*, ‘written’, used in a copper-plate grant, refers to the drafting or composition of the charter or to the copying of the draft on the plates for the guidance of the engraver. This is because, besides the composition of a document and its incision on the plates, the function of writing it on the plates with ink or a pointed instrument in order to help the engraver is sometimes referred to.³ A calligraphist was entrusted with this work, though the engravers must have incised the documents without such help, in a large number of cases, directly from the drafts. Sometimes the correct position can be inferred. Thus the Salem plates of Śrīpuruṣa end with the passage: ‘this charter has been written by Guru-śiṣya, an expert in the art of painting which is the basis of all arts’,⁴ even though the names of the composer and the engraver are not mentioned in this case.