THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

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into a palatal; as tya, dya, dhya, etc, be come resp. cheha, jja, jjha ; e.g., Skr. ‘satya’ true-Prăk. and Gaur. ‘sachcha"; Skr. ‘adya’ to-day=Prākrit ‘aja, Gaur. ‘āja'; Sanskrit ‘madhya' middle, – Pråk. and Gaur. majjha. The Panjābi form ‘pujanā’ has the same rela tion to the Marâthi form ‘púchaneſ' as the Sindhi genitive postposition “jo' to the Marâthi ‘châ.”

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There is another theory of the origin of the verb ‘pahuñchanā' and its group of modifica tions. According to this theory, it is derived from the Sanskrit noun “praghārna' guest, or from the Sanskrit past participle passive ‘pra ghūrmita,’ also meaning guest. The first of these two words may be set aside at once, as it

[Dec. 6, 1872.

does not account for the consonants ch, j, q,

which are the group of verbs. the dental t is the palatal ch.

distinguishing feature of that In the other word “praghūrnita,' supposed to be the original of It is not proved that the word

occurs in Sanskrit.

Still this need not be an

insuperable objection. But it is fatal to this theory that the Sanskrit dental t is always elided in such words, in their passage through the Prakrit to the Gaurian, and therefore can

not have originated the palatal ch; and 2, that a dental never changes by itself into a palatal, but only if followed by a palatal sound (as in ty, dy, etc.); and 3, that the theory does not account for the verb ‘pukāranā, and not easily for ‘puganà.’

THE MERKARA PLATES. I.

NOTICES OF THE CHERA. DYNASTY.

THE inscription of which the accompanying plate presents a facsimile is engraved on three copper plates 8 inches by 3:2, and varying in thickness from 0.065 to 0-1 inch. They are secured on a ring 0.25 inch in thickness and about 3 inches diameter inside, closed by an elephant in relievo with its trunk down, and measuring 0-97 by 0-88 inch. They were first brought to my notice by Mr. Graeter who gave me a transcript of them, and called my attention to their age and the names of the kings mentioned in them. Through the kind ness of the Rev. G. Richter of Merkara, I have been able to obtain the use of them in order to prepare the facsimiles.

As illustrative of the history of the Cher a dynasty, the following extracts are given from Wilson's Mackenzie Collection :-

“CHERA.—Another political division of the south of India which may be traced to periods of some antiquity, is that of the Cher a kingdom, which is always enumerated along with the Pan dy an and Chol a states, by original authorities. The boundaries of this principality seem to have been of little extent, and it was probably most com monly feudatory to its more powerful neighbours except where it had extended its northern limits so as to interpose a mountainous barrier between it and its enemies.

The northern limit of Cher a

varied at different periods, being originally placed at P ab in i near Dh a rap ura, whilst at a sub

sequent period the capital, Dal a van pur or Tālkā d above the Maisur Ghâts, indicates a con siderable extension of the boundary in this quarter, and the C he r a principality probably included

early state, however, it comprehended the extreme south of the Malabar coast or Tr a van k or, and consisted of that province, Wyn Ād, the Nilgiri mountain district, the southern portion of Koim b at ur, and part of T in n e velli. In this tract we have in Ptolemy he people called Carei, and not far from it C a rur a regi a Cero both r a in which, making an allowance for inaccuracies of sound and expression, we have the Cher as

and Karur still a city in this district, and Chera p a ti, the sovereign of Chera. “It seems probable, therefore, that in the com mencement of the Christian era, Chera, or as it

is also called Kong a, was an independent prin cipality. Of its history, either before or since, little satisfactory occurs, until periods compara tively modern. Lists of princes, one of thirty, and another of twenty, who, it is said, ruled in the Dwapar and beginning of the Kali age, are given but they are unaccompanied by details: another series of twenty-six princes adds the political events of their reigns, and closing with the con quest of the province by A d it y a Verm ā, a Chola prince in A.D. 894, it enables us to place the commencement of the dynasty in the fifth century. The occupation of the country by the Chola Rājas was not of very long continuance, and in the course

of the tenth century the capital Tälkä d was that of the first or second sovereign of the Hay as āla or Bel à la dynasty of the sovereigns of Karnā ta. The name of Chera appears to have been discontinued from this period, and the districts were annexed to the neighbouring principalities of Karn át a, Madura, or Tanjor.” The Kongades a Rājākal, a palm leaf MS. refer

Its eastern

red to above, he describes as “an account of the

limits were the possessions of Chola and Pan

princes of the country known as K on g a or Chera,” corresponding “nearly with the modern

the greater portion of Karn at a.

dy a, and the western those of Keral a. In its

• Wilson, Mackenzie Coll. Intrº, pp. xcii-xciv.