Indian Epigraphy c9.t9.8

c9.t9.8

The plates, which were small, medium or big in size, were generally oblong in shape. The royal seal, previously fashioned from a mould, was usually fixed to the upper or left margin of single plates and on the joint of the ring holding several plates together. The seals were generally of bronze and were so cast from moulds that the emblems and legends on them appeared on a counter-sunk surface. On plates having the seal fixed at the top, the lines were incised breadthwise, while those having the seal at the left margin had the lines engraved lengthwise. Similarly, the writing on multiplate charters is lengthwise or breadthwise according as the ring holding them passes through holes made in the left or top margin of the plates.