siddham
The South Asia Inscriptions Database

Basarh Clay Seal of Ghaṭotkacagupta

An oval terracotta seal. The dimensions I give here are from Agrawala, while those of the inscription are from Bhandarkar. I assume that one is for the inscription, the other is for the object; alternatively, Agrawala may be in error (his numbers are the same as for the seal of Dhruvasvāminī).

Object URI
OB00028
Extent
6.5 cm width x 4.5 cm height
History details
Found by Bloch in excavations in 1903-04 at the village of Basarh (ancient Vaiśālī), Muzaffarpur District, Bengal (map of site on plate XXXI, adjacent to #Bloch_1906:82). The seals were found in the Fort, at a depth of 3 metres, at the site where according to local tradition the palace of Rājā Bisāl once stood (detail map on plate XXXIII, adjacent to #Bloch_1906:88). The seals were in a room 10 metres square without any doorways, so it was evidently a subterranean vault (or refuse pit). A total of about 720 pieces of clay, with over 1100 seal impressions (of about 120 varieties), were recovered. All or most of these clay pieces seem to have been presses on strings used to tie letters.
Created
Place
Vaiśālī
Recorded
Place
Basarh
Date
1903-04
Recorded
place uncertain

Basarh Seal Legend of Ghatotkacagupta

Inscription URI
IN00031
Extent
~2.9 cm width x ~2 cm height
Decoration
None.
Edition
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-model href="http://www.stoa.org/epidoc/schema/latest/tei-epidoc.rng" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?>
<?xml-model href="http://www.stoa.org/epidoc/schema/latest/tei-epidoc.rng" schematypens="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"?>
<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xml:lang="eng-Latn" xml:space="preserve">
<teiHeader>
<fileDesc>
<titleStmt>
<title>Basarh Seal Legend of Ghatotkacagupta</title>
<editor>Dániel Balogh</editor>
</titleStmt>
<publicationStmt>
<authority>Siddham - The South Asia Inscriptions Database</authority>
<idno type="siddham_inscription_identifier">IN00031</idno>
</publicationStmt>
<sourceDesc>
<msDesc>
<msIdentifier>
<msName>Basarh Clay Seal of Ghaṭotkacagupta</msName>
<idno type="siddham_object_identifier">OB00028</idno>
<repository>unknown</repository>
</msIdentifier>
<physDesc>
<objectDesc>
<supportDesc>
<support>
<material>clay / terracotta</material>
<objectType>seal</objectType>
<extent>
<dimensions unit="cm">
<width>6.5</width>
<height>4.5</height>
<depth />
</dimensions>
<measure type="weight" unit="gram">not available</measure>
</extent>
<p>An oval terracotta seal. The dimensions I give here are from Agrawala, while those of the inscription are from Bhandarkar. I assume that one is for the inscription, the other is for the object; alternatively, Agrawala may be in error (his numbers are the same as for the seal of Dhruvasvāminī).</p>
</support>
</supportDesc>
<layoutDesc>
<layout>
<dimensions unit="cm">
<width>~2.9</width>
<height>~2</height>
</dimensions>
<p>The dimensions I give here are from Bhandarkar, while those of the support are from Agrawala. I assume that one is for the inscription, the other is for the object; alternatively, Agrawala may be in error (his numbers are the same as for the seal of Dhruvasvāminī).</p>
</layout>
</layoutDesc>
</objectDesc>
<handDesc>
<height unit="cm">0.5</height>
<p>northern class, Gupta script of unclassified variety</p>
</handDesc>
<decoDesc>
<p>None.</p>
</decoDesc>
</physDesc>
<history>
<origin>
<origPlace>Vaiśālī</origPlace>
<origDate />
</origin>
<p>Found by Bloch in excavations in 1903-04 at the village of Basarh (ancient Vaiśālī), Muzaffarpur District, Bengal (map of site on plate XXXI, adjacent to #ARASI_1903-04:82). The seals were found in the Fort, at a depth of 3 metres, at the site where according to local tradition the palace of Rājā Bisāl once stood (detail map on plate XXXIII, adjacent to #ARASI_1903-04:88). The seals were in a room 10 metres square without any doorways, so it was evidently a subterranean vault (or refuse pit). A total of about 720 pieces of clay, with over 1100 seal impressions (of about 120 varieties), were recovered. All or most of these clay pieces seem to have been presses on strings used to tie letters.</p>
</history>
</msDesc>
</sourceDesc>
</fileDesc></teiHeader>
<text>
<body>
<div type="edition" xml:lang="san-Latn"><p>
<lb n="1" />
ś<unclear>r</unclear>ī-ghaṭ<unclear>o</unclear>t<unclear>ka</unclear>caguptasya
</p>

</div></body>
</text>
</TEI>