1. Pedda-Dugam plates, year 9.
Bhàrati, March 1955, pp. 86 ff. (V. Bhanumurty); JAHRS, Vol. XXI, pp. 159 ff. (V. Bhanumurty); A.R.Ep., 1955-56, App. A., No. 7; El, XXXI, No. 15 (D. Ch. Sircar).

This is a set of three plates discovered in the course of digging the earth for the foundation of a house at the village of Pedda-Dugam in the Narasannapet Taluk of the Srikakulam District, Andhra State. The record was published by Mr. V. Bhanumurty, who secured the plates for examination through the Collector of the District. His readings and interpretation of the epigraph, however, contain many errors. The plates were received in July 1955 for examination at the office of the Government Epigraphist for India through the Deputy Commissioneer of Commercial Taxes, Guntur, and were returned, at his request, to the Registrar, Andhra University, Waltair.
The set consists of three thin plates each measuring about 7" by 2.7". The first plate bears writing only on the inner side while the others are inscribed on both the sides. There is a hole (about 4" in diameter) for the seal-ring to pass through in the left margin of the plates. The oval face of the seal soldered to the ring is so completely defaced that no legend or emblem is visible on it. The three plates together weight about 50 tolas while the weight of the ring with the seal is about 17 1/2 tolas. The plates are numbered on the obverse side in late Telugu-Kannaäa numerals, apparently not incised at the time of the engraving of the plates. The characters belong to the Southern Alphabet and may be assigned on palaeographic ground to a date roughly about the fifth century A.D. The language of the record is Sanskrit, though there are many grammatical errors in the text of the document.  (DS)