Indian Epigraphy c11.t2.6

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