Indian Epigraphy c11.t1.18

c11.t1.18

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.