Indian Epigraphy c11.t8.47

c11.t8.47

Copper-plate charters usually bear some indication as regards their validity and genuineness. Generally this authentication is indicated by the royal seal affixed to the top or left of single plates and to the copper ring on which the plates of multi-plate records are strung. In some cases, the donor’s signature on the original document, later incised on the plates, is also copied at the end. Thus Dadda’s grant³ concludes with the passage: *sva-hasto mama śrī-Daddasya*, ‘[This is] the own sign-manual of me, the illustrious Dadda.’ Sometimes the words *mataṁ mama*, ‘approved by me’, are used. The word *mata* here may also mean the same thing as *sva-hasta*. But the records of the Candella king Madanavarman, e.g., have *sva-hasto* = *‘yaṁ śrīman-Madanavarmadevasya mataṁ mama*.⁴ To such a sentence is in some cases added two others stating that the donor made his decree public through the language of the charter as drafted by the scribe and that the authoritative character of the grant could not be challenged on the basis of mistakes of omission and commission creeping into the text.⁵