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Indian Epigraphy c11: Chapter V. Copper-Plate Grants

Indian Epigraphy c11

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Chapter V. Copper-Plate Grants

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ROYAL CHARTERS AND CONNECTED PROBLEMS

1. Rāja-śāsana

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The word *śāsana* means a *rāja-śāsana* or royal charter, and *tāmra-śāsana* ‘a royal charter engraved on [a plate or plates of ] copper’.¹ Ancient Indian authorities classify *rāja-śāsana* under three heads, viz. (i) *dāna-śāsana* recording gifts, (2) *prasāda-śāsana* recording various kinds of favour, and (3) *jaya-patra* declaring the victory of one of the parties in a dispute.² Most of the records of ancient Indian rulers so far discovered however belong to the firs category.

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¹ The deeds of gift were often called *dāna-patra*, *tāmra-patra*. *śāsana-patra*, etc. The word *patra* in these compounds suggests that the records were written on *bhūrja-patra* (birch-bark sheets) or *tāla-patra* (palmyra leaves) and only some of them were later engraved on copper plates.

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² Cf. *Kṛtyakalpataru* (G. O. S.), *Vyavahāra-khaṇḍa*, pp. 157-60.

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Revenue-free lands granted by ancient Indian rulers in favour of persons, deities or religious establishments were usually endowed with a deed engraved on durable *tāmra-paṭṭa*, i.e. ‘a plate or plates of copper’,³ although we also know that such documents were sometimes incised even on stone. By *lakṣaṇā*, a *tāmra-śāsana* was sometimes called *tāmra-paṭṭa*.⁴ Often again the word indi ating the deed or charter (e.g. *tāmra-śāsana*) was applied, by *lakṣaṇā*, to indicate the land granted by means of such a charter.⁵ But, besides *tāmra-śāsana*, this modified sense of revenue-free land was in many cases indicated either by *tāmra*¹ or by *śāsana*.² The word *śāsana* in this sense is widely used not only in the medieval records of Orissa but even in modern Oriya. Numerous villages in Orissa still bear names ending with the word *śāsana*, indicating that originally they were gift villages. In early records of different parts of India, rent-free holdings under the possession of gods and Brāhmaṇas were usually called *deva-deya* or *deva-dāya* and *brahma-deya* or *brahma-dāya* respectively. In the southern part of India, the word *agrahāra* was more popular in the sense of a rent-free village in the possession of Brāhmaṇas.

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³ In the place of *paṭṭa*, we have also the use of the words *paṭṭaka*, *paṭṭikā*, *phalaka*, *phali*, *patra*, *patraka*, *patrikā*, etc., in the same sense.

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⁴ Cf., e. g., *tāmra-paṭṭa-dharmeṇa* in *Select Inscriptions*, p. 352, etc.

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⁵ Cf. ibid., p. 353, text line 24, etc.

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¹ See, e. g., *IHQ*, Vol. XXIII, p. 240, text line 33; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, p. 308, p. 311 (text line 9-10), etc. See also *tāmraka* in the same sense (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. IV, pp. 128, 131).

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² See, e. g., *Inscriptions of Bengal*, Vol. III, p. 74, text line 43, etc. Cf. words like *paṭṭa* or *paṭṭikā* in the same sense (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIV, p. 298, note; Vol. XVII, p. 330, note).

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Works of a few of the early writers on law, such as Viṣṇu³ and Yājñavalkya,⁴ give us some idea about the *rāja-śāsanas* or charters recording grants of land, property, etc., made by kings. According to Viṣṇu, "[The king] should grant land to Brāhmaṇas. For the information of future kings, he should also give the donees of the grant a charter written on cloth or copper-plate endowed with his own seal and with a description of the boundaries of the land, of his own ancestors and of the measurement of the area. He should not confiscate land granted by others...The king should kill persons who prepare spurious charters, and also those preparing spurious documents."⁵ According to Yājñavalkya, "After granting land or making a *nibandha*, the lord of the soil (i.e. the king) should have a document prepared for the information of noble kings of the future. He would then cause the preparation of a lasting charter writt n on cloth or copper-plate, adorned with his own seal on the outer side, with his own signature and date and with a description of himself and his ancestors and the amount of the gift and the boundaries of the gift land.’¹ As regards the preparation of a document, Vyāsa says that it should be written first by chalk on a slab or on the ground and, after the elimination of all errors, should be finally written on a leaf (or, metal tablet).²

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³ In the matter of the *rāja-śāsanas*, Viṣṇu agrees with Yājñavalkya, although the former is assigned to a later date (cf. *Camb. His. Ind.*, Vol. I, p. 279).

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⁴ The *Yājñavalkyasmṛti* is assigned by scholars to a date about the fourth century A.D. (ibid., pp. 279 f.)

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⁵ See III, 57-59; V, 9-10.

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¹ Cf. II, 318-20.

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² Vyāsa quoted in the Śabdakalpadruma says: Pāṇḍu-lekhyena phalake bhūmau vā prathamaṁ likhet | ūṇ-ādhikaṁ=tu saṁśodhya paścāt=patre niveśayet || The same authority as quoted in the Kṛtyakalpataru (op. cit., pp. 157-58) says: Rājñā tu svayam=ādiṣṭaḥ sandhivigraha-lekhakaḥ | tāmra-paṭṭe pate v=āpi pralikhed=rāja-śāsanam || Sthānāṁ-anupūrvi ca deśaṁ grāmam=upāgatān | Brāhmaṇāṁś=ca tathā c=ānyān=mānyān=adhikṛtān likhet | Kuṭumbino=tha kāyastha-dūta-vaidya-mahattarān | Mleccha- caṇḍāla-paryantān=sarvān=sambodhayann=iti || Mātā - pitror=ātmanaś=ca puṇyāya=amuka-sūnave | dattam may=āmukīyāya dānaṁ sabrahmacāriṇe || Candr-ārka-sama-kālīnaṁ putra-pautr-ānvay-āgatam | anacchedyam=anāhāryaṁ sarv-ābhāvya-vivarjitam || Dātuḥ pālayituḥ svargaḥ hartur=narakam=eva ca | jñātaṁ may=eti likhitaṁ tadā vyakt-ākṣarair=yutam || Abda-māsa-tadardh-āho rāja-mudr-āṅkitaṁ tathā | anena vidhinā lekhyaṁ rāja-śāsanaṁ likhet || The word ābhāvya means ‘tax’, although it is wrongly quoted and explained in the Kṛtyakalpataru.

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³ As regards the marking of boundaries, Manu (VIII, 250-51) says, Aśmano=sthini go-bālāms=tūṣān=bhasma-kapālikāḥ | kariṣam=iṣṭak-āṅgārān=charkarā bālukās=tathā || Yāni c=aivaṁ-prakārāṇi kālād=bhūmir=na bhakṣayet | tāni sandhiṣu sīmāyām=aprakāśāni kārayet || According to Yājñavalkya (II, 151), Nayeyur=ete sīmānam sthal-aṅgāra - tuṣa - drumaiḥ | setu-valmīka- nimn-āsthi-caity-ādyair=upalakṣitām || while according to Bṛhaspati, prakṣipya kumbheṣu=etāni sīm-ānteṣu nidhāpayet. See Select Inscriptions, pp. 345 (text line 19), 363 (text lines 15-16), etc.

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The Mitākṣarā, a medieval commentary on the Yājñavalkyasmṛti by Vijñāneśvara, also furnishes some valuable information regarding the preparation of royal charters. According to this work, the passage ‘on cloth or copper-plate’ and the word ‘date’ in the original should be explained respectively as ‘on cotton cloth, copper plate or copper tablet’ and ‘the expired year of the Śaka kings and the [regnal] year [of the donor], the solar and lunar eclipses, etc.’

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The information drawn from the above sources may be summed up as follows : (1) After making a grant of land, etc., the king caused the preparation of a lekhya or document for the guidance of future kings of the land. (2) It was then written on a piece of cloth or engraved on copper plates or a copper tablet, and thus was made a permanent charter. (3) It contained a description of the king and three of his immediate predecessors and of the land granted together with its boundaries and measurement; it was also endowed with the king's seal, signature and date. (4) There is no explicit statement regarding the donee by Yājñavalkya, though it is supposed that the donee is implied in his language and that his name should also be written in the charter. (5) A high official was entrusted with the drafting of a document according to the Mitākṣarā. As will be seen below, the above characteristics are noticeable in the copper-plate charters discovered in different parts of India, though the paucity of early charters may suggest that many of them were written on cloth which is an easily perishable material.

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Very interesting light on the nature of the rāja-śāsana is also thrown by the section entitled lekhya-prakaraṇa in Yājñavalkya’s work, though the verses deal with bonds. Vijñāneśvara points out that, of the two kinds of documents called śāsana and jānapada, the section deals with the latter, although he admits that there was no great difference between the two varieties. From this section we learn that the year, the month, the fortnight, the day, the names [of both the parties], the case, gotra, sabrahmacārika, the fathers’ names [of both the parties] and similar other details were specified in the documents. It is also said that a duplicate document could be prepared when the original one was left in a distant land or was illegible, lost, damaged, stolen, broken, burnt or torn.¹ The jānapada documents were evidently not written on durable material. Ancient Indian authorities also dealt with the problem of spurious charters and the ways of distinguishing such documents from genuine records.²

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¹ We have some instances of the issue of a duplicate rāja-śāsana (cf. the Nidhanpur plates of Bhāskaravarman in Kāmarupaśāsanāvali, pp. 1 ff.). See Ep. Ind., Vol XXX, p. 290; Vol. XXXI, p. 267; above, p. 97.

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² Cf. Kṛtyakalpataru, op.c it., pp. 161 ff

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Treatises like the Lekhapaddhati and Lokaprakāśa³ quote some specimens of different types of documents as they were written in the late medieval period respectively in Gujarat and Kashmir.

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³ See Gaekwad Oriental Series, No. XIX and Appendix IV in the work. See also the Patrakaumudī noticed by Jayaswal in A Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in Mithila, Vol. II, pp. 12-13. Cf. above, p. 88.

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Metallic plates or tablets, especially of copper, are known to have been used in India for writing documents since very early times. The Sohgaura (Gorakhpur District, U.P.) inscription¹ of the 3rd century B. C. which is written on a bronze tablet, the Taxila copper-plate inscription² (21 A.D.) of Patika and the Kalawan (near Taxila) copper plate inscription³ of 77 A. D. are some of the early instances of this practice.⁴ But these are not copper-plate charters of the proper type described above.

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¹ Select Inscriptions, pp. 85-86.

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² Ibid., pp. 120-21.

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³ Ibid., pp. 127-28. Cf. above, p. 74.

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⁴ For early inscriptions on vases of copper and silver and other metallic objects, see ibid., pp. 84, 109, 129 f.. 131, etc. See also above, pp. 74 ff.

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The earliest copper-plate charters of the usual type, so far discovered, come from the southern areas of India. They are the Prakrit charters of the Pallava kings of Kāncī, viz. the Mayidavolu and Hirahadagalli plates of Śivaskandavarman,⁵ both assignable to the middle of the 4th century A.D. The Gunapadeya plates⁶ of Pallava Skandavarman's time and the Kondamudi plates⁷ of Jayavarman, both from the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, the Basim (Akola District, Bombay State) plates⁸ of Vākāṭaka Vindhyaśakti II and the earliest charters⁹ of the Śālaṅkāyanas of Veṅgī should have to be assigned to the same century. In the north, the Dhanai-daha (Rajshahi District, North Bengal) plate,¹⁰ issued in the Gupta year 113 (433 A. D.) during the reign of the Gupta emperor Kumāragnpta I, is one of the earliest copper-plate grants as yet discovered. But a recently discovered plate of Īśvararāta, a ruler of the Kathiawad region, appears to belong to the end of the 4th century A.D.¹¹

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⁵ Select Inscriptions, pp. 433 ff.; 437 ff., Suc. Sāt. L. Dec., pp. 165ff.

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⁶ Select Inscriptions, pp. 443 ff.

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⁷ Ep. Ind., Vol. VI, p. 315; Suc. Sāt. L. Dec., pp. 41 ff.

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⁸ Select Inscriptions, pp. 406 ff.

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⁹ Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, pp. 51 ff.; Vol. XXXI, pp. 1 ff.; Suc. Sāt. L. Dec., pp. 63 ff.

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¹⁰ Select Inscriptions, pp. 280 ff. Samudragupta's Gaya and Nalanda plates (ibid., pp. 262 ff ) are spurious.

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¹¹ See Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXIII, pp. 303 ff.

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But some of the West Indian cave inscriptions belonging to the Kṣaharāta and Śātavāhana rulers of the 2nd century A.D. were undoubtedly copied on the cave walls from original *rāja-śāsanas* on cloth or copper plate.¹ Thus the Nasik cave inscriptions² of Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi (c. 106-30 A.D.), dated in his regnal years 18 and 24, another epigraph³ at the same place belonging to the reign of Nahapāna and dated in 120 A.D. and several others of the same type engraved on the walls of the excavated caves in Western India are copies of original *rāja-śāsanas*. These records resemble the known specimens of early copper-plate grants and generally agree with the specifications of the ancient legal writers discussed above.⁴ The records of Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi actually refer to themselves respectively as a *paṭikā* (regarded as standing for Sanskrit *paṭṭikā* meaning a copper-plate grant)⁵ and a *lekhya* (document) while the epigraph of Nahapāna’s reign refers either to the engraving of the document on *phalakas* (plates or tablets [of copper]) or to the preservation of such documents in the store-house of *phalakas*.

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¹ *Proc. IHC.*, Lahore, 1940, pp. 52 ff.

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² *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 191 ff.; 193 ff.

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³ Ibid., pp. 157 ff.; cf. above, p. 99 and note 2.

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⁴ The minor differences that are noticed in this regard are also found in the charters of different ages, of different parts of the country and of different ruling families. See the Section on the structure of the *rāja-śāsanas* below.

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⁵ The word *paṭikā* may also be derived from *paṭa* meaning ‘cloth’, though its derivation from Sanskrit *paṭṭikā* is generally accepted by scholars. See above, p. 67.

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The above Kṣaharāta and Śātavāhana records and others of the same type in the caves of Western India are thus *rāja-śāsanas* originally engraved on copper plate. The system of engraving royal charters on copper plates is therefore not later than the beginning of the second century A.D. It is possible to think that it was the ascetic donees, and not the donors, who were responsible for copying the charters on the walls of the caves in which they lived either for a considerable period of time or only for the rainy season. The aim was evidently to have a charter which, unlike copper-plate grants, could not be lost. The copying therefore may not have been done exactly when a charter was issued and the records may have been engraved on the walls several at a time without special regard to their chronological order. Their nature thus seems to resemble that of the medieval votive inscriptions engraved on the walls of temples of renown.¹

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXX, p. 19, note 7; p. 159; Vol. XXXIII, p. 239.

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We have many later instances in which royal grants were copied on temple walls or stone slabs. Among such records found in North India, the Shergadh stone inscription,² originally affixed to the wall of the local temple of the god Somanātha, is a careful copy of a regular charter of the Paramāra king Udayāditya (c. 1060-87 A.D.) of Malwa recording the grant of a village made by the king in favour of the said deity. Of the many well-known instances from South India, mention may be made of the Gadag inscription³ (1192 A.D.) of the Hoysala king Vīra-Ballāla II, the Belgaum inscriptions⁴ (1204 A.D.) of Raṭṭa Kārtavīrya IV and others.

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² Ibid. Vol. XXIII, pp. 132-36.

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³ Ibid., Vol. VI, pp. 89 ff.

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⁴ Ibid., Vol. XIII, pp. 16 ff.; pp. 27 ff.

2. Other Types of Śāsanas

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Sometimes *rāja-śāsanas* were characterised by different names. Thus the Motupalli inscription⁵ (1244-45 A.D.) of the Kākatīya king Gaṇapati calls itself *abhaya-śāsana*, i.e. an edict [assuring] safety’. It is stated, ‘Formerly kings used to take away by force the whole cargo, viz. gold, elephants, horses, gems, etc., carried by ships and vessels which, after they had started from one country for another, were attacked by storms, wrecked and thrown on shore. But we, out of mercy, for the sake of glory and merit, are granting everything besides the fixed duty (*klpta-śulka*) to those who have incurred the great risk of sea voyage with the thought that wealth is more valuable than even life.” The fixed duties are enumerated in the record and the stone pillar bearing the document is styled a *śāsana-stambha*.

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⁵ Ibid., Vol. XII, pp. 189,

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Similarly a stone inscription¹ (1531 A. D.) of the Vijayanagara king Acyutarāya, found in the Viṣṇupāda temple at Gayā, is called his *dharma-śāsana* since it records how a person visited Gayā on behalf of the king and performed the *śrāddha* ceremony of the king's dead ancestors. Although it is called an edict for religion (i.e. religious merit), it is not a *śāsana* in the real sense of the term. It is so called because in the late medieval period any royal record was a *śāsana*. A similar stone inscription² (1521 A. D.) of king Kṛṣṇadevarāya, the predecessor and brother of Acyutarāya, recording the king's performance of a pilgrimage to Gayā through a proxy, is styled a *vijaya-śāsana* (a document relating to victory) although this *vijaya* can only be regarded as *dharma-vijaya*, i.e. success relating to religion or religious merit.

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¹ Ibid, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 113ff.

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² Ibid., pp. 110ff.

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Early Orissan epigraphy knows of a type of *śāsanas* called *kraya-śāsana*. The Madras Museum plates³ (10th century) of the time of king Narendradhavala of Orissa record a *kraya-śāsana* which literally means ‘a charter of purchase’ and is similar to an ordinary ‘sale deed’. The expression also indicates ‘land sold or purchased by means of a *kraya-śāsana*.’ The inscription does not record any royal charter, although it refers to a village originaly sold by a king. According to it, a person named Seḍā sold a village to three other persons on receipt of an amount of *rūpyaka* or silver.⁴ It has been called a *śāsana* or charter apparently because the village was originally purchased by Seḍā from a king named Śilābhañja. A private deed of purchase or sale has been called a *kraya-cirikā* in the Mangraon inscription and a *kraya-lekhya* in Bṛhaspati's work while *cirikā* and *ciṭhikā* are both used in the sense of ‘a private document’ in the *Lekhapaddhati*.⁵

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³ Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 40 ff.

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⁴ See *JRAS*, 1952, 11-4 ff. The amount is specified as *pla* 10 *ā* mā 2 *gu* 4. *Pla* is a contraction of the well-known weight *pala* (320 *ratis*) while *ā-mā* stands for *āḍhaka* (5 *ratis*) and *gu* for *guñjā* (or *rati*).

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⁵ See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXV, p. 246 and note 8. For various kinds of private documents, see A. S. Altekar in *ABORI*, Vol. IX, pp. 49ff.

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It is interesting to note that the Madras Museum plates, specifically called a *kraya-śāsana*, quote the usual imprecatory and benedictory verses meant for the *tāmra-śāsanas* or charters recording revenue-free gifts of land. This is because, as the *Mitākṣarā*¹ explains, the Indians of old extolled the gift of land and rather deprecated the sale of landed property, which they also preferred to represent as a gift. This attitude of the ancient Indians was responsible for the representation even of a sale of land in the form of a gift in the record referred to above.

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¹ *Mitākṣarā* on the *Yājñavalkyasmṛti*, II, 114: *sthāvarasya vikraya-pratiṣedhāt......dāna-praśaṃsā=ca vikraye='pi kartavye sa-hiraṇyam=udakaṃ datvā dāna-rūpeṇa sthāvara-vikrayam kuryāt*.

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The Chicacole plates² of the Gaṅga king Madhukāmārṇava has the passage: ‘[the amount of] 150 *Rūpyas* [is paid] to the donor.’ This shows that the donor received from the donee 150 silver coins. The charter thus records what was actually a *kraya-śāsana*, although the *vaiśy-āgrahāra* created by means of the document may have been a rent-free holding.

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² *JAHRS*, Vol. VIII, pp. 180 ff.; *JBORS*, Vol. XVIII, pp. 293 ff. Cf. *JRAS*, loc. cit.

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There was another kind of *śāsana* called *kara-śāsana*,³ a number of which have been traced among the early epigraphs of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The expression *kara-śāsana* means ‘a charter recording a revenue-paying grant’. Thus it can refer to a piece of land either sold, the purchaser being allowed to enjoy some privileges, or given away subject to the payment of a small rent regularly.

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³ See *JRAS*, 1952, pp. 4-10. The inscriptions referred to in this section were mostly wrongly read and interpreted by previous writers.

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In the Bengal Asiatic Society’s plate⁴ of Gayāḍatuṅga, we have: ‘Toro-grāma is made a *kara-śāsana* at nine *palas* of silver’, while the Talcher plate⁵ of the same king speaks of the fixation of *tṛṇodaka* for the gift land at four *palas* of silver without using the word *kara* or *kara-śāsana* in the context.

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⁴ *JASB*, N. S., Vol. V, 1909, pp. 348 ff.

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⁵ *Archaeological Survey of Mayurbhanj*, Vol. I, pp. 152-54; *JASB*, N.S., Vol. XII, 1916, pp. 293-94.

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The expression *tṛṇodaka* (literally, ‘[tax for] grass and water’) has here the technical sense of a cess due to the king even when the gift land was declared to be revenue-free.¹ There is also no doubt that the village, granted by the second of the two charters to several Brāhmaṇas, was subject to the payment of an annual cess at the rate of four *palas* of silver. Similar is the case with the Talcher plate² of the Śulkī king Kulastambha, which says that the gift village was made a rent-free holding, though elsewhere *tṛṇodaka* is stated to have been fixed for it at two *palas* of silver. Thus, although the village was made a revenue-free holding, a cess styled *tṛṇodaka* was levied at the annual rate of two *palas* of silver. Five *palas* of silver appear to be mentioned as the *tṛṇodaka* for the gift village in the Narasinghpur plate³ of Devānanda.

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¹ It is actually mentioned in a list of taxes in the Sonepur plates of Kumāra Someśvara (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XII, pp. 239 ff.).

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² *Archl. Surv. Mayur.*, op. cit., pp. 157-160; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XII, pp. 156-59.

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³ *IHQ*, Vol. XXIX, p. 300.

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The use of this special term *tṛṇodaka* in preference to the usual *kara* points to the eagerness of the ancient Indian rulers to represent even a rent-paying holding as a rent-free one, as indicated by the *Mitākṣarā* quoted above. It seems that the land was given away (and not sold) to the party and that this transaction had to be distinguished from an ordinary sale of land. This may explain the use of the word *tṛṇodaka* for *kara*.

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The Jurāḍā grant⁴ of Neṭṭabhañja shows that a village was made a rent-free gift, though its *rājakīya-pratyāya* (i.e. the dues payable to the king) was fixed at the rate of four *palas* of silver, while another four *palas* of silver were also due for the taxes called *khaṇḍapāla-muṇḍamola*.

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⁴ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIV, pp. 15-20.

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The Angul plate⁵ of the Bhauma-Kara queen Dharmamahādevī seems to state that the queen granted the village of Śakembā in favour of a Brāhmaṇa as a *tāmra-śāsana*, i.e. a revenue-free gift, and that she also gave to the same Brāhmaṇa a part of another village called Deśalā, which was subject to the annual payment of three *palas* of silver. The Ganjam plates¹ of Gaṅga Pṛthvīvarman of Śvetaka do not use the expression *kara-śāsana* but clearly state that the gift village was made a rent-paying holding at the fixed rate of four *palas* of silver to be paid every year by the donee as rent. The Patna plates² of the Somavaṃśī king Mahābhavagupta I Janamejaya similarly state that a village was granted by the king as a *kara-śāsana* with its annual rent fixed at eight *palas* of silver. The Chicacole plates of the Gaṅga king Anantavarman record a grant, for which the dues payable to the king (apparently, annually) were ten *māṣakas* (i.e. one-fourth *pala*) probably of silver.

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⁵ B. Misra, *Orissa under the Bhauma Kings*, pp. 50 ff.

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. IV, pp. 192-201.

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² *Ibid.*, Vol. III, pp. 340-44. For another *kara-śāsana* of the same king, see *JPASB*, Vol. I, pp. 12-13.

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The Adava-Kannayavalasa plates³ of the Māṭhara king Prabhañjavarman record the gift of a locality as an *agrahāra*, but state at the same time that the annual rent (*kara*) was fixed for it at two hundred *paṇas* probably of cowrie-shells. The same amount is mentioned in the Bobbili plates⁴ of Acaṇḍavarman as the annual dues payable for a rent-free *agrahāra*.

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³ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXX, pp. 114-15.

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⁴ *IHQ*, Vol. XXIX, p. 299. The king's name is not Caṇḍavarman.

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The records discussed above come from the ancient country of Kaliṅga covering parts of Orissa and of Andhra Pradesh. As instances of the grant of a rent-paying village outside the said area, reference may be made to the recently published Bhaturiya inscription⁵ of Rājyapāla of Bengal and Bihar and the Nesarikā grant⁶ of Govinda III.

c11.t2.34

⁵ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXIII, pp 15off.

c11.t2.35

⁶ *Ibid.*, Vol. XXXIV, p. 140

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Many of the *kara-śāsanas* discussed above quote the imprecatory and benedictory stanzas meant for rent-free gifts. The reason for this is indicated by the *Mitākṣarā* passage quoted above.

c11.t2.37

Some of the copper-plate records of the Gupta age discovered in Bengal were issued by the district officers. These were official records but not royal charters in the strict sense. They record the purchase of plots of State land for the purpose of creating rent-free holdings in favour of gods and Brāhmaṇas. With this end in view, a person had to apply to the district authorities and the record-keepers of the district office had to certify about the availability of land at the price offered by the applicant. The price was then accepted and the creation of the rent-free holding sanctioned. In many cases, such holdings were created out of fallow land in the possession of the State.¹

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¹ See *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 280ff., 283ff., 324ff., 328 ff., 337ff., 342ff.

3. Creation of Rent-Free Holdings

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As indicated above, some charters² record the sale of Government land (often fallow land) to an applicant paying the usual price and the Government’s acceptance of his proposal to create a rent-free holding out of the purchased land in favour of Brāhmaṇas or religious institutions. In such a transaction, it was believed, according to an ancient Indian convention, that five-sixths of the religious merit for the creation of the revenue-free holding would go to the purchaser of the land and one-sixth of it to the king of the country, whose government alone could create such a holding.³

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² Ibid., pp. 337 ff., 342 ff., etc.

c11.t3.3

³ Cf. ibid., p. 344, text line 13; p. 348, text line 16; etc. Cf. *tapaḥ-ṣaḍbhāgam=akṣayyam* in the *Abhijñānaśakuntala*, Act II, verse 13.

c11.t3.4

There is another kind of charters which, instead of speaking of the sale of the land that was created into a rent-free holding by the king in favour of Brāhmaṇas or religious institutions, merely state that the particular holding was created at the request of a certain officer or feudatory of the king or some other persons. In spite of the absence of any reference to sale in such records, some of them appear to be based on a transaction involving sale.⁴ Thus the Nalanda plate⁵ of Devapāla records a grant of five villages by the Pāla king to a Buddhist monastery at Nalanda at the request of Mahārāja Bālaputradeva who was the lord of Suvarṇadvīpa (Sumatra) and was responsible for establishing the monastery. The five villages were apparently purchased by Bālaputradeva from Devapāla as otherwise the whole of the religious merit accruing to the pious act of endowing the monastery with a rent-free holding for its maintenance would go to Devapāla and nothing at all to Bālaputradeva.¹ This was no doubt an undesirable position for the king of Sumatra. If he really purchased the villages, as he no doubt did, five-sixths of the merit would be his and only one-sixth would go to Devapāla according to the convention referred to above.

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⁴ As we have seen, sale of land was generally represented in ancient India as a gift. See above, p. 111, note 1.

c11.t3.6

⁵ Bhandarkar’s List, No. 1613.

c11.t3.7

¹ Cf. R. D. Banerji, Bāngālār Itihās, Vol. I, B. S. 1330, p. 210.

c11.t3.8

But as regards the land made into a rent-free holding at the request of an officer or feudatory of the king, it was no doubt in many cases lying within their jāgīr, i.e. fief or estate. In the case of land forming part of jāgīrs which royal officers of ancient India enjoyed temporarily,² their occupants lost the rent of or income from the land in question so long as they were in their possession. But the king's loss of revenue was greater as the land remained rent-free when the jāgīr reverted to him or was later allotted to some other officer. It therefore seems that the occupants of jāgīrs had to compensate the king's loss at least partially for the creation of revenue-free holdings within their fiefs, as otherwise they could scarcely expect the full share of merit accruing to the pious act. We have also cases³ where a king is found to ratify the rent-free holdings created in their jāgīrs by members of the royal family.

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² Cf. Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, Vol. I, p. 177.

c11.t3.10

³ See the cases of such holdings created by Princes Sūryasena and Puruṣottamasena and ratified by king Viśvarūpasena in his Vangīya Sāhitya Pariṣat plate (N. G. Majumdar, Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, p. 147; JAS, Letters, Vol. XX, pp. 206-07).

c11.t3.11

But it appears that a number of the grants of rent-free lands issued by the kings were really made on behalf of persons whose names are not mentioned in the documents. This seems to be suggested by the fact that, in a few cases, even though the grants are recorded in the king's name, an endorsement at the end of the documents says that they were made by others and in reality there is a contradiction between the facts as stated in the charter proper and the endorsement. An important document of this type is the Bangaon plat¹ of Vigrahapāla, which purports to record the grant of a village by the Pāla king in favour of a Brāhmaṇa, although in an endorsement at the end it is summarily stated that the grant was made by an officer of the king named Ghaṇṭiśa out of his own jāgīr.

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¹ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIX, pp. 48ff. Cf. Vol. XXXIII, p. 63, text line 10.

c11.t3.13

Another interesting fact is that the indication of a particular grant being actually made by one of the king's officers or feudatories but represented as one made by the king is not clear in the documents, though some of them appear to suggest the fact in a vague way. There are many records which introduce a person without any ostensible relation with the charter stated to have been granted by the king. Such an introduction is often found at the end of the documents exactly in the position of the endorsement in the Bangaon plate of Vigrahapāla III, referred to above. In a few cases, such an enigmatic name is also met with in the body of the charter without any justification for its introduction. Since it is inexplicable why a person without anything to do with the grant should be mentioned in a royal charter at all, it seems that they might have been the real donors of the grants in question and that this fact was intended to be rather vaguely indicated in the said way. It also appears that there was an amount of reluctance on the part of the Government to admit such a fact.

c11.t3.14

The Mehar plate² of Dāmodara records a grant of lands in favour of a number of Brāhmaṇas. But at the end of the king's description in verse, there is one stanza introducing Gaṅgādharadeva who was the officer in charge of the royal elephant force. The introduction of this person cannot be explained unless it is supposed that he was the real donor of the grant although the king was not eager to mention the fact explicitly in the document.¹

c11.t3.15

² Ibid., Vol. XXVII, pp. 182 ff.

c11.t3.16

¹ Ibid., Vol. XXX, pp. 52-53.

c11.t3.17

The Andhavaram plates² of the Eastern Gaṅga king Indravaraman record the grant of a village as an agrahāra or rent-free holding in favour of several Brāhmaṇas. The king is clearly mentioned as the donor. But the record is stated in the end to have been written under orders of Lokārṇavadeva, the vanquisher of many foes. The charter was issued in the Gaṅga year 133. But, instead of describing it as the usual pravardhamāna-vijaya-rājya-saṁvatsara or Gāṅgeya-vaṁśa-pravardhamāna-vijaya-rājya-saṁvatsara as we find in other Gaṅga records, the inscription in question calls it Tunburu-vaṁśa-rājya-saṁvatsara. This reminds us of the Santa-Bommali plates³ issued by a Kadamba feudatory of a Gaṅga king, which describe the Gaṅga era as Gaṅga-Kadamba-vaṁśa-pravardhamāna-vijaya-rājya-saṁvatsara even though the Kadambas had nothing to do with the establishment of the era. It appears that the grant recorded in the Andhavaram plates of Gaṅga Indravarman was really made by his feudatory Lokārṇava of the Tumburu dynasty. Unless such was the case, it is difficult to explain why he was introduced as ordering for the writing of the document and why the Gaṅga era is described only in this record as associated with the Tumburu dynasty.⁴

c11.t3.18

² Ibid., pp. 37 ff.

c11.t3.19

³ Bhandarkar's List, No. 2053.

c11.t3.20

⁴ An. Rep. Ind. Ep., 1951-52, p. 5.

c11.t3.21

There is a stanza about the end of a charter issued by the Śailodbhava king Sainyabhīta Mādhavarman II Śrīnivāsa.⁵ The verse seems to refer to a ruler named Varamora or Varanara who is described as varadīkṛta-lokanātha-sakha. It appears that lokanātha mentioned in the passage quoted above is no other than the Śailodbhava king himself and Varamora or Varanara was his feudatory who was the real donor of the grant. The word varadīkṛta means, ‘[the king] who was made the giver of boons [by Varamora or Varanara]’ and refers to the favour shown by the king to the feudatory by agreeing to the creation of the rent-free holding recorded in the inscription no doubt at the feudatory's request.

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⁵ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIV, pp. 128 ff.; Vol. XXXIII, p. 52.

c11.t3.23

There is an endorsement at the end of the Balangir Museum plates¹ of the 8th regnal year Mahāśivagupta Yayāti I. It speaks of Prince Durgarāja as the son of Svabhāvatunga who seems to be identical with Mahāśivagupta Yayāti himself. The introduction of the prince is really inexplicable unless he was the real donor of the grant which was ratified by his father. Similarly the enigmatic endorsement at the end of the Mahada plates² of the Telugu-Coḍa king Someśvaradevavarman of South Kosala appears to show that Yaśogaja, described in it as a ruling chief born in the family of the donor, was the real donor of the grant which was ratified by the king. If this was not the case, the endorsement is quite meaningless.

c11.t3.24

¹ JAS, Letters, Vol. XIX, pp. 117 ff.

c11.t3.25

² Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 283 ff.

c11.t3.26

In this connection, reference may be made to the epithet dāpaka applied to a person in a number of copper-plate grants of the Imperial Paramāras. The word is generally understood by scholars in the sense a Dūtaka or executor.³ Since, however, the epithets dāpaka and dūta are sometimes both applied to the same person,⁴ it is difficult to support the suggestion. It is not impossible that the dāpaka was the real donor whose grant was ratified by the king.

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³ CII, Vol. III, p. 291, note.

c11.t3.28

⁴ Cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. XXII, p. 76, text lines 67 ff. (verse 39).

c11.t3.29

Rent-free holdings in the possession of gods, Brāhmaṇas and others were generally called agrahāra, sarva-mānya, sarva-namasya, namasya-vṛtti, etc. Sometimes particular names were applied to such holdings in order to indicate the special character of a gift. Thus the Garra plates⁵ (1205 A.D.) of Candella Trailokyavarman refer to the rent-free holding granted to the son of one who died while fighting the Turuṣkas (Muhammadans) on the king's behalf as a mṛtyuka-vṛtti (literally 'death-grant'). In the inscriptions of the Śātavāhanas, the expression *bhikṣu-hala* is used to indicate a rent-free holding to be enjoyed by the Buddhist monks while the privileges of the donees are collectively styled as *parihāras*.¹ The same records² show that sometimes an *akṣaya-nīvī* or permanent endowment was created by means of land instead of a sum of money.³

c11.t3.30

⁵ Ibid., Vol. XVI, pp. 272 ff.

c11.t3.31

¹ Cf. *Select Inscriptions*, p. 201.

c11.t3.32

² Ibid., p. 200, text line 2.

c11.t3.33

³ For the technical terms, see below.

c11.t3.34

SPECIMENS OF RĀJA-ŚĀSANA

1. Form

c11.t4.1

There are various kinds of copper-plate records. Sometimes they contain official orders or the record of the construction of a monastery, etc. The *yantras* of the Jains and the Brāhmaṇas are also engraved on copper plates of various sizes—big, small or medium, and triangular, rectangular or round.¹ But the most important among copper-plate records are those issued by kings in respect of the grants they made for the purpose of attaining religious merit. These also greatly vary in size and shape. As regards shape, the plates were usually rectangular though some of them resemble squarish blocks of stone, or stone stelae.² Among rectangular plates, there are some which are somewhat longer or broader in the middle than at the ends or at the ends than in the middle.³ They have either rounded or angular corners. In rare cases, royal charters were written on peculiarly shaped lumps of copper such as an axe-head, as we have seen above.

c11.t4.2

¹ Ojha, *Bhāratīya Prācīn Lipimālā*, p. 153 and note 9. See above, pp. 74ff.

c11.t4.3

² Cf. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, Plates between pp. 310 and 311. See ibid., Vol. XIV, Plates between pp. 348 and 349.

c11.t4.4

³ Cf. ibid., Vol. XXIX, Plate facing p. 168 and Plates between pp. 40 and 41; Vol. XXXI, Plates between pp. 306 and 307.

c11.t4.5

Copper plates of small size resembling palmyra leaves or bark sheets were originally employed in writing royal documents recording grants of land. Thus the Kanas plate⁴ of Lokavigraha measures 4 17/20" in length and 2 1/2" in height while the Kesaribeda plates⁵ of Arthapati are each 7 2/3" long and 1 1/2" high. These resemble sheets cut out of palmyra leaves. As regards copper-plate records resembling bark sheets, reference may be made to the charter¹ of Viṣṇuṣeṇa, which is engraved on plates measuring 17.² inches by 7.³ inches.

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⁴ Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, p. 329.

c11.t4.7

⁵ Ibid., p. 12. The smallest plate in the Rajputana Museum, Ajmer, is 4 1/2 inches by 3 inches and weighs twelve *tolās* (Ojha, op. cit., p. 153, note 6). Cf. above, pp. 75-76.

c11.t4.8

¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXX, pp. 163 ff. and Plates.

c11.t4.9

The shape of the plates is generally oblong or rectangular and the corners are usually rounded off. The earlier records, especially those written on more than one plate, have thin sheets. But the bigger plates of later days were often thick and the borders of the inscribed faces of the sheets in multi-plate documents were in many cases slightly raised in order to avoid friction so that the writing might not be rubbed out. For the protection of the writing, the charters of the Candella kings, when written on more plates than one, generally had narrow copper bands fixed with copper rivets on the margins of the inscribed sides of the plates.²

c11.t4.10

² *Cf. ibid.*, Vol. XXXII, p. 119.

c11.t4.11

Single plates had the royal seal affixed to the left or top margin while, in the case of records engraved on more sheets than one, the plates were strung on copper ring and the seal was soldered on its joints.³ The ring passed through holes made in the plates in the left or the top margin. The seal was usually of bronze, but occasionally of copper, and it was cast from a mould. The royal emblem or the legend or both are noticed in relief on the counter-sunk surface of the seal. The seals were affixed to the single plates by means of knobs passing through holes made in the plate.

c11.t4.12

³ *Cf. above*, p. 75.

c11.t4.13

Sometimes the plates of the early rulers were slightly bigger in size when only one was used in writing a charter than when several of them were employed. Small records often mentioned the donor alone as in the records of Lokavigraha and Arthapati referred to above; but, in some cases, the name of his father was added.⁴ In many cases, however, the donor is found to be introduced as the son and grandson or the son, grandson and great-grandson of particular rulers⁵ and is also often mentioned along with a large number of his ancestors.¹ But such details are not generally found in single-plate records of smaller size. An elaborate description of the achievements of the donor and his ancestors does not usually find place in the earliest copper-plate inscriptions.

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⁴ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIII, p. 251, text lines 9 ff.

c11.t4.15

⁵ See, e. g., *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 445 f. and pp. 456 f. for four generations and pp. 378 and 407 for three generations.

c11.t4.16

¹ See ibid., pp. 371, 375, 419-20, etc.

c11.t4.17

Some kings of the Kathiawar region issued charters incised on the inner sides of two plates, their outer sides being kept blank.² The majority of the multi-plate documents of the early period were, however, written on three plates. The records of the Somavaṁśī kings of Orissa speak of such charters as *triphalī-tāmraśāsana*,³ i.e. a deed written on three plates or tablets of copper. The outer sides of the first and third plates of these records are usually uninscribed. This practice was no doubt meant for the preservation of the writing. We have stated above how, for the same purpose, the borders of the inscribed sides of the plates were sometimes slightly raised.

c11.t4.18

² See, e. g., the Maitraka charters in *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, pp. 299 ff.; cf. above, p. 75.

c11.t4.19

³ Cf. ibid., Vol. III, pp. 346 ff.

c11.t4.20

One of the biggest of the three-plate records is the Paithan epigraph⁴ (1272 A.D.) of the Yādava king Rāmacandra. The plates are each 20½ inches by 15 inches and together weigh 2,300 *tolās*. They are strung on two rings weighing 457 *tolās*, one of which bears the royal seal with the emblem of Garuḍa. The total weight of the charter is thus 2,757 *tolās* (about 70 lbs.). There are altogether one hundred and eighteen lines of writing on the plates.

c11.t4.21

⁴ *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XIV, pp. 314 ff.

c11.t4.22

A tendency to introduce an elaborate eulogy of the donor and his ancestors in the copper-plate grants gradually developed. This is specially noticed in the charters issued by imperial rulers. As a result of this, even those dynasties which engraved their charters on single plates (e. g. the Pālas and Senas of Eastern India) had to use plates of a bigger size. Thus, the Monghyr plate⁵ of Devapāla measures 18¾ inches by 13⅜ inches and the Naihati plate⁶ of Ballālasena 15 inches by 13⅝ inches. Such epigraphs often contain about seventy lines of writing. The weight of a single plate (19 inches by 13 inches), without any seal, bearing an inscription (in twentyfour lines of writing) of the Gāhaḍavāla king Govindacandra (c. 1114-55 A. D.) on only one of its faces, is 372½ *tolās*.¹ The Daulatpura plate² of Pratīhāra Bhoja I (c. 836-85 A. D.), together with the seal affixed to it, measures 29½ inches by 16⅓ inches and weighs 1580 *tolās*. A single-plate charter³ issued by the Ahom king Gaurīnāthasiṃha of Assam in 1792 A. D. measures 24 inches in length and 17⅝ inches in breadth.

c11.t4.23

⁵ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVIII, pp. 304 ff.

c11.t4.24

⁶ Ibid., Vol. XIV, pp. 159 ff.

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXV, p. 207.

c11.t4.26

² *Cf.* Ojha, loc. cit.

c11.t4.27

³ *A. R. Ep*, 1957-58, No. A 3.

c11.t4.28

Among the early dynasties that used more than one copper plate for their documents, we may mention the Pallavas of South India, the Vākāṭakas of Berar, the Maitrakas of Valabhī and the Bhaumas of Prāgjyotiṣa. The Nidhanpur inscription⁴ of the Bhauma king Bhāskaravarman (first half of the 7th century) was originally written at least in about one hundred and seventy lines on as many as six or seven plates. The records of the Eastern Gaṅga emperors of medieval Orissa were usually incised on six or seven plates which, together with the seal-ring, generally weigh more than one thousand *tolās*. One of the Puri copper-plate inscriptions⁵ of Gaṅga Narasimha IV, who ascended the throne about 1378 A. D., contains no less than two hundred and seventy-eight lines of writing. But the biggest copper-plate inscriptions so far discovered belong to the Coḷa dynasty of the Tanjore-Tiruchirapalli area of South India. The Leiden inscription⁶ of Rājarāja I (985-1016 A.D.) has four hundred and forty-three lines of writing engraved on twentyone plates. The Tiruvalangadu inscription,⁷ dated in the sixth regnal year of Rājarāja’s son Rājendra I (1016-43 A. D.), is written on thirtyone plates which, together with the massive seal-ring, weigh 7,980 *tolās* (about 200 ll.s.) and bear eight hundred and sixteen lines of writing. But the biggest copper-plate charter so far discovered is the Karandai inscription of the eighth regnal year of the same Coḷa monarch.¹ It is engraved on no less than fifty-five plates which measure 16½ inches by 9½ inches each and together weigh, even without seal-ring, 8645 *tolās* (about 216 lbs.). The weight of one of the two seal-rings found with the plates is 753 *tolās*. The inscription contains upwards of two thousand and five hundred lines of writing. The first three plates, containing one hundred and thirtyone lines, give the genealogy of the Coḷas up to Rājendra I and record the gift of a village in favour of certain Brāhmaṇas. The next twentytwo plates contain a eulogy (in one thousand and fortyone lines) of the king as well as a description of the boundaries of the gift village and the names of the officials and other persons associated with the grant. The last thirty plates quote (in one thousand three hundred and sixtyseven lines) the names of the donees together with those of their *gotras*, places of residence, etc. The number of donees thus enumerated is no less than one thousand and seventythree.

c11.t4.29

⁴ P. N. Bhattacharya, *Kāmarūpaśāsanāvali*, pp. 1 ff.

c11.t4.30

⁵ *JASB*, Vol. LXIV, Part I, pp. 136 ff.

c11.t4.31

⁶ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXII, pp. 213 ff.

c11.t4.32

⁷ *SII*, Vol. III, pp. 383 ff.

c11.t4.33

¹ *Jour. Or. Res.*, Vol. XIX, p. 148.

c11.t4.34

We know that, while describing the boundless liberality of a king, a poet sometimes speaks of the dearth of copper that resulted from the issue of innumerable copper-plate grants by the former.² Considering the great bulk of the copper charters of the Coḷa monarchs, we have to admit that the statement, hyperbolic though it is, may not, at least in some cases, be entirely without foundation.

c11.t4.35

² Ballāla’s *Bhojaprabandha* (Nirnayasagara Press, 1932), p.34, verse 162 : *Asya śrī-Bhojarāja-ya d-ayam=eva sudurlabham | śatrūṇām śṛṅkhalair= loham i-tinram śāsana-patrakaiḥ ||*

c11.t4.36

In this connection, it has also to be noticed that sometimes old or rejected copper plates were utilised for the preparation of fresh charters. Often they were melted to make a sheet of copper and smaller sheets were cut out of it for particular charters. In such cases, the old writing is completely lost even though sometimes traces of hammering are noticeable on the plates. But, in some cases, the old writing was merely beaten in by hammering and the text of the new document was written on the erasure. In such records, traces of the old writing are often visible under the later writing. We have a number of palimpsests of this kind.¹ In certain cases, only a part of the old writing is beaten in by hammering or erased by chiselling.²

c11.t4.37

¹ Cf. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, pp. 202 ff. and Plates; above p. 76.

c11.t4.38

² Ibid., Plates IVa and IVb facing pp. 307 and 308.

c11.t4.39

Late copper-plate grants like those of the Ahom kings of Assam and the rulers of Chamba are generally written on one side of a single plate, though the size of the plate varies according to the requirement in individual cases. The donor's seal is usually engraved on such plates. The copper-plate grant of the Chamba rulers is provided with a handle to its proper right and the plate thus puts on the appearance of a *takhtī* or wooden board used formerly by school children. A hole is sometimes noticed in the centre of this handle probably for hanging it on to a peg with a string. The predilection for engraving only on one side of the plate is much in evidence in certain cases where the writing runs on into all the margins not excluding the handle, and the size of the letters in the concluding part of a record gradually diminishes.³

c11.t4.40

³ B. Ch. Chhabra, *Antiquities of Chamba State*, II, pp. 1-2.

c11.t4.41

The seal engraved on these charters has the shape of a rosette or some other ornamental design, the space in the centre being occupied by a legend containing the name of the donor. Sometimes the seal is replaced by the word *sahī* which has been compared to the word *dṛṣṭa* found in early charters and taken to mean 'correct'.⁴ The word, however, also means 'a signature'⁵ and may really stand for the donor's signature on the original document. In certain late medieval copper plates of the Orissa region, the word śrī is found to stand for the donor's signature.¹

c11.t4.42

⁴ Ibid., p. 75. In East Indian charters of the early medieval period, we have often the contraction *ni* which is generally taken to indicate *nibaddha* (i.e. registered), but may also stand for *nirīkṣita* meaning 'seen' (i.e. approved), the same as *dṛṣṭa*. See below, p. 127 and note 2, pp. 149-50.

c11.t4.43

⁵ See Wilson's *Glossary*, s. v.

c11.t4.44

¹ In the charters of the Senas of Bengal, we have the contractions śrī-ni probably standing for śrī-nirīkṣita (i.e. seen or approved by the illustrious [king]). In Orissan charters, sometimes the king is mentioned as śrī-hasta or śrī-caraṇa (cf. Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVIII, p. 304; Vol. XXXIII, p. 292, text lines 181, 183; below, p. 150).

c11.t4.45

Late Orissan charters are also generally written on both sides of a single plate. But a peculiarity is that the first few lines mentioning the donor's name are engraved on the obverse, then the writing of the major part of the document is continued on the reverse and finally the closing lines are engraved on the lower part of the obverse, to be read now from the opposite side.

2. Classification of Contents

c11.t5.1

² See B. Ch. Chhabra, 'Diplomatic of Sanskrit Copper-plate Grants' in The Indian Archives, Vol. V, 1951, pp. 1 ff. especially pp. 6 ff. The author uses the word 'diplomatic' in the sense of 'a critical study of diplomas' and 'diploma' in that of 'documentary source of history'. The Roman 'diploma' (from a Greek verb meaning 'to double') was so called because it was formed of two sheets of metal, which were shut together like the leaves of a book. Similar is the case with the grants of some West Indian rulers, which were incised on the inner side of two plates of copper with two rings passing through holes in their upper margin holding them together (cf. above, pp. 75, 122).

c11.t5.2

The contents of royal charters, which were generally engraved on copper plates but sometimes also on stone slabs, may be divided into three broad sections, viz. (a) Preamble, (b) Notification and (c) Conclusion. But the grants of different ages, different royal families, different rulers of the same family and different categories of rulers often exhibit differences and there may be omissions and alterations in the details in each one of the sections.

c11.t5.3

The Preamble generally comprises the following items: (1) invocation, (2) the place of issue, (3) the name of the donor with his titles and ancestry, and (4) the address in respect of the grant. The Notification similarly comprises: (1) specification of the gift, (2) the name of the donee, (3) the occasion of the grant, (4) the purpose of the grant, and (5) the boundaries of the gift land. The Conclusion likewise contains: (1) an exhortation in respect of the grant, (2) the names of the officials responsible for the preparation of the document, and (3) the date and authentication of the record.

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