Indian Epigraphy c11.t3.4

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.