1990 - "A Puzzling Report on a British Museum Buddhist Pedestal Inscription," in: South Asian Studies 6, pp. 39-42. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Rajibpur Copper Plate Inscriptions of Gopāla IV and Madanapāla
2015
The present article offers the first proper edition of the Rajibpur Copperplate Inscriptions of Gopāla IV and Madanapāla with discussions on their contents. As the inscriptions pertain to the last phase of the Pāla rule, they provide us important information on their history in the middle of the twelfth century, especially the regency of Madanapāla, his possible usurpation of the throne of Gopāla IV and parallel reigns of both kings for a substantial period. They also attest to Madanapāla’s effort towards fiscal rearrangement and tighter hold over royal estate urged by the shrinking territorial control. The information on recipients and occasions of grants show us the inclination of the Pāla kings towards Purāṇic rituals, common to the other contemporary dynasties in Bengal.
In the collection of medieval stone sculptures from Bihar-Bengal at the Museum of Indian Art, Berlin, thers is a fragment of a votive chatty a most probably from Bodligaya (Museum No, MIK I 579/. The fragment is of smooth, greyisli black basalt which is generally known as Rajmahal slate because the stone came from the quarry of the Rajmahal Hills 3 at the border of Bihar and Bengal, The fragment is a part of the socle of a chaliya and it measures 83 cm in length. It shows on the upper part a row of nine seated figures of the Buddha, of which the face of the first, the head of the eighth and the head and upper body of the ninth figures are damaged. All the Buddhas sit in the vajraparyankasana attitude on a cushion marked with crossed lines. No lotus has been used as the seat. Of the nine figures the third and the seventh show the dhyana or samadhi-mudia and the rest the bhtimisparka-tmidra. 3 The figures in the dhyanaor samadhi-mudta hold a pot on the palms.' 1 The utlarascinga of these two figures covers the while upper body while on the other figures it covers the left side of the upper body together with the left' arm.
Bharat Kala Bhavan Copper Plate Inscription of Rājyapāla, year 2: Re-edition and Reinterpretation
2016
This article provides a re-edition of the copper plate inscription of Rājyapāla, dated year 2, kept at Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benares Hindu University. This is so far the only one known grant of the king. It records the royal grant of two villages to a brāhmaṇa, pertaining to Dūtikā viṣaya of Tīra bhukti in northern Bihar. The eulogy recorded in the plate is important in mentioning Mammā, the daughter of a ruler named Govindarāja, the queen of Nārāyaṇapāla and the mother of Rājyapāla, to whom no other inscriptions refer. The inscription is also important as a document, for one line with smaller characters mentioning a village name is added to the last line of the obverse and a sentence of confirmation with later date is given at the end of the inscription. This seems to have been necessitated for either the omission of the name of one village was detected or the village was given additionally, after the issue of grant.
AN INSCRIBED IMAGE OF THE BUDDHIST DEITY FROM WEST BENGAL
Journal of Bengal Art, Vol.15, 2010
Bashirhat subdivision, North Twenty-four Parganas, West Bengal, and since 1984-85 is a valuable acquisition of Sundarban Anchalik Sangrahasala, Baruipur. The following paper tries to highlight the socio-religious and cultural contour of the region i.e.; Haroa, Bashirhat subdivision, North Twenty-four Parganas by focusing on a study of a single inscribed sculptural specimen of a Buddhist T rã, engraved on its back with an Arabic inscription. In this context it may be mentioned that in addition to this particular sculpture with an Arabic inscription, there are several sculptures (datable / undatable) inscribed with an Arabic and Persian scripts reported from different ateliers of Bihar and Bengal. Of the vast repertoire of this type of inscribed images, six images have come to my notice. They are: () An Arabic inscription on the back of a Jaina Adin tha (District Malda, North Bengal, Malda Museum No. RXV-12 black basalt, undated, records the erection of a mosque). (n) An Arabic inscription engraved on the pedestal of a Vi_nu image (Mahisantosh, Dhamoirhat, Naogaon, Rajshahi, Varendra Research Museum No. 314, basalt, dated, records the erection of a mosque).' ()An Arabic inscription on the reverse of a slab depicting Var ha (Kaitahar, Joypurhat district, Bogra, Bangladesh, Varendra Research Museum No. 2662, basalt, dated.(IV) Inscribed ParFa[abar+ with an inscription at the back(Buridighi, Dinajpur, West Bengal, Ashutosh Museum, main gallery, black stone). (V) An Arabic inscription on the back of a pedestal of a image of Pär[vanatha (Triveni, Hooghly district, West Bengal, dated, records the erection of a mosque). (VI) An Arabic inscription on the back of the lower portion of Skrya.
Another Inscribed Image Dated in the Reign of Rāmapāla
Pratna Samiksha New Series, 2011
Inscribed images of the time of Pala rule in Bengal-Bihar between ninth and the twelfth centuries CE form a major source for the study of polity, society and art of the early medieval period in eastern India. As many as six dedicatory inscriptions datable to the reign of the Pala king Rāmapāla have been reported so far. The present paper aims at deciphering of the seventh specimen that has long been published but has never been properly read and interpreted.
From all of undivided Bengal, less than two dozen copperplate charters are known for the entire period preceding the ascent of the Pala dynasty, and only a single (fragmentary) stone inscription. Two new copperplates have recently come to light, both from the Pupdravardhana area, i.e. North Bengal. The first is dated to year 159 of the Gupta era (478 ce), and hence issued during the reign of Budhagupta; the second is dated to the year 5 of a previously unknown king named Pradyumnabandhu, who must have ruled in the period between about 550 and 650 ce—a period for which Pupdravardhana had heretofore lacked any historical documentation. This article makes the new inscriptions available in edition with translation and some discussion of what the contents might contribute to the historical study of early Bengal.