Indian Epigraphy c11.t1.4

c11.t1.4

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.