Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Indian Epigraphy c11.t2: 2. Other Types of Śāsanas

Indian Epigraphy c11.t2

Language
English

2. Other Types of Śāsanas

c11.t2.1

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*.

c11.t2.2

⁵ Ibid., Vol. XII, pp. 189,

c11.t2.3

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.

c11.t2.4

¹ Ibid, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 113ff.

c11.t2.5

² Ibid., pp. 110ff.

c11.t2.6

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

c11.t2.7

³ Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 40 ff.

c11.t2.8

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*).

c11.t2.9

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.

c11.t2.10

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.

c11.t2.11

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*.

c11.t2.12

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.

c11.t2.13

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

c11.t2.14

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.

c11.t2.15

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

c11.t2.16

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.

c11.t2.17

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

c11.t2.18

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

c11.t2.19

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.

c11.t2.20

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

c11.t2.21

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

c11.t2.22

³ *IHQ*, Vol. XXIX, p. 300.

c11.t2.23

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*.

c11.t2.24

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*.

c11.t2.25

⁴ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIV, pp. 15-20.

c11.t2.26

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.

c11.t2.27

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

c11.t2.28

¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. IV, pp. 192-201.

c11.t2.29

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

c11.t2.30

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*.

c11.t2.31

³ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXX, pp. 114-15.

c11.t2.32

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

c11.t2.33

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

c11.t2.36

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

c11.t2.38

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

Linked texts (6)