Indian Epigraphy c11.t7: 4. Notification

Indian Epigraphy c11.t7

Language: English

4. Notification

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As indicated above, the items in notification, which is the central theme of a charter, are: (1) the specification of the gift, (2) the name of the donor, (3) the occasion and purpose of the grant, and (4) the boundaries of the gift land. These items, however, do not always appear in the records in the said order, neither do all charters have all the five of them. The recorded details in different grants sometimes differ widely.

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The gift generally consists of a plot of land or a field or a village or several plots, fields or villages. The name and location of the gift land are often indicated with reference to the district and other territorial divisions such as *grāma*, *viṣaya*, *maṇḍala*, *bhukti*, *vīthi*, *pattalā*, etc. The area of a plot of land is usually specified in the current land measure called *hala*, *nivartana*, *pādāvarta*, *kulyavāpa*, *droṇavāpa* *āḍhavāpa*, *nālikāvāpa*, *kalasikā:āpa*, *ṭimpira*, etc. It is difficult to determine the exact area of these land measures with reference to particular ages and localities, though the words ending in *vāpa* give some vague indication. Thus *droṇa-vāpa* no doubt meant originally an area of land on which one *droṇa* measure of the seeds of the principal crop could be sown.¹

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¹ See *Bhārata Kaumudi*, Part II, pp. 943 ff. One of the reasons for the difference was that the cubit was measured according to the length of the forearm of an individual and, consequently, the length of the measuring rod differed. See below, Chapter VIII, Section vi.

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In connection with the measurement of land, sometimes particular measuring rods are mentioned and its length, occasionally according to the length of the forearm of an individual, is vaguely or specifically indicated. Thus the land granted by means of the Barrackpur plate² of Vijayasena is

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² N. G Majumdar, *Ins. Beng.*, Vol. III, p. 63, text line 33.

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*dhika* (police magistrate); *cauroddharaṇika* (prefect of the police); *dāṇḍika-dāṇḍapāśika* (police officers); *śaulkika* (customs officer); *gaulmika* (officer in charge of police-station, etc.); *kṣetrapa* (officer in charge of the royal lands); *prāntapāla* (warden of the marches); *koṭṭapāla* (governor of a fort); *khaṇḍarakṣa* or *aṅgarakṣa*; those in charge of elephants, horses, camels, navy and army; those in charge of foals, mares, cows, she-buffaloes, goats and sheep; *dūta*, *preṣaṇika*, *gamāgamika*, *abhitvaramāṇa*; head of a district; head of a village; ferry-man; *cōṭa*, *bhaṭa* and other servants of such nationalities as Gauḍa, Mālava, Khasa, Hūṇa, Kulika, Karṇāṭa and Lāṭa; and other non-mentioned subjects and servants of the king. See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIX, p. 5, note 1; also below, Chapter VIII, Section iii.

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stated to have been measured according to the standard measuring rod (*nala*) used in the Samataṭa country, while one of the Faridpur plates of Dharmāditya states that the gift land was measured with a rod, the length of which was determined according to that of the forearm of the pious Śivacandra.¹ The measurement of the gift land was sometimes entrusted to a high officer of the king.²

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¹ *Select Inscriptions*, p. 356, text line 17.

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² Cf. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, p. 188.

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The party, in whose favour the grant was made, sometimes consisted of a single person and sometimes of a number of persons. Some of the royal charters record grants of land to hundreds of donees often specifying the allotment to each one of them. The Chammak plates³ of Vākāṭaka Pravarasena II record the grant of a village to 49 Brāhmaṇas without specifying their shares. The donees in this case were probably entitled to enjoy equal shares of the gift village. The Brāhmaṇa donees of the Nidhanpur plates⁴ of Bhāskaravarman are more than 200 in number and their shares in the land are carefully specified. The largest list of donees is probably found in the Karandai plates⁵ of Rājendra-coḻa I, which enumerate the names, etc., of no less than 1073 Brāhmaṇas. The donees were generally Brāhmaṇas whose names are often mentioned along with those of their fathers⁶ and occasionally also with those of their grandfathers⁷ and great-grandfathers as well as those of their *gotras*, *pravaras*, *caraṇas* and the Vedic *śākhās* to which they belonged.⁸ In some cases, later inscriptions mention the place from which a donee’s family originally hailed.⁹ The list of donees sometimes throws welcome light on the social history of the country.¹⁰

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³ *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 418 ff. Sometimes the donees are mentioned as a group and not individually (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, pp. 5, 9).

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⁴ P. N. Bhattacharya, *Kāmarūpaśāsanāvalī*, pp. 33 ff.

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⁵ *Journ. Or. Res.*, Vol. XIX, 1950, p. 148.

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⁶ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXII, p. 160.

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⁷ See, e. g., *ibid.*, Vol. XXIII, p. 205.

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⁸ Cf. N. G. Majumdar, *Ins. Beng.*, Vol. III, pp. 5, 21, etc
9. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIX, p. 12, text line 41; p. 56, text line 39.

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¹⁰ Thus the list in the Nidhanpur plates show how the second part of personal names was stereotyped as family designations at a fairly early

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When a religious institution like a temple was the recipient of a grant, the name of the deity (sometimes together with that of the priest or priests) is mentioned.¹

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¹ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 189.

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Though gifts were made for acquiring religious merit, some grants do not specifically mention either the purpose or the occasion on which they were made. But most of the donations are known to have been made on occasions like a *saṅkrānti*, an eclipse of the sun or of the moon, a religious festival, or a visit to a sacred spot such as a temple or a confluence of rivers.² In a number of cases, the donor is stated to have made the grant after taking a ceremonial bath in the waters of a holy river.³ Similarly, the grant is sometimes stated to have been made to the donee in the name of the family-deity of the king.⁴

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² Cf. ibid. Vol. XXVIII, p. 64 and note 3; etc.; *Garuda Purāṇa*, Pūrva-khaṇḍa, Ch. 51, verse 29: *Ayane viṣuve c=aiva grahaṇe candra-sūryayoḥ | saṅkrānty-ādiṣu kāleṣu dattam bhavati c=ākṣayam* See below, p. 145.

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³ Cf. the expression *vidhivad=Gaṅgāyām snātvā* in the Pāla charters (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIX, p. 8, text line 46).

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⁴ Cf. *bhagavantam Buddha-bhaṭṭārakam=uddiśya* (ibid., Vol. XXXIII, p. 140, text line 37).

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A gift of land was sometimes made at the request of the donor’s mother, wife or some other relative and, in some cases, also of an official or subordinate or a different ruler.⁵ There are cases of grants made in return for a service done by the donee or his ancestors for the donor. Such donees sometimes belonged to communities other than the Brāhmaṇa. Thus the Pedda-Bammidi plates⁶ of Gaṅga Vajrahasta III record the grant of a village to a non-Brāhmaṇa for his satisfactory military service, while the Garra plates⁷ of Candella Trailokyavarman record the grant of land as *mṛtyuka-vṛtti* (literally, ‘death-grant’) in favour of a noble whose father died fighting the Muhammadans on the king’s behalf. The gifts were

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⁵ See above, pp. 114 ff.

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⁶ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, pp. 305 ff.

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⁷ Ibid., Vol. XVI, pp. 272 ff.

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date in East India where the Brāhmaṇas were then enjoying cognomens now prevalent only among the non-Brāhmaṇa classes. Cf. *IHQ*, Vol. XIX, pp. 17-18; Vol. XXIII, p. 236.

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generally sanctified by the libation of water,¹ although this ritual is not mentioned in some of the charters.

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¹ Cf. Agni Purāṇa, Ch. 209, verses 49-50: *Dravyasya nāma gṛhṇīyād=dadān=iti tathā vadet |* *toyaṃ dadyāt=tato haste dāne vidhir=ayaṃ smṛtaḥ ||*

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The purpose of a grant, which was generally the accretion of merit to the donor and his parents, is specifically mentioned in many cases. A number of early charters are stated to have been issued for ensuring the longevity, strength, glory and prosperity of the donor. In some cases, a grant is known to have been made in order to enable the donee to perform his daily rites if he was a Brāhmaṇa, for the maintenance of the worship of a deity, for conducting repairs to a temple, or for feeding monks, etc., as the case may be, the expenses involved being met from the income derived from the gift land. Sometimes, however, no such specification was made and the donee was to enjoy the gift as he pleased. The donee’s and his descendants’ rights and privileges, including exemptions and immunities in respect of the gift land, are often clearly stated. In some cases, as already indicated above, the donee had to pay certain taxes while he was rarely allowed to enjoy the fines from thieves and some other transgressors of law.²

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² Cf. also below, Chapter VIII, Section v.

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In cases where the plot of land or the village granted happened to have its boundaries well known to the villagers, the limits were not specifically defined, though mention was sometimes made of the fact that it went with its wellknown boundaries. In other cases, the boundaries of the gift land are properly defined. Natural land-marks generally resorted to were hillocks, brooks, trees or groves. Often boundaries were demarcated by erecting posts or pillars³ or by interring husks, charcoal, etc., in the ground.⁴ Where a large area was involved, such records as those of the Coḷa and Pāṇḍya kings of South India sometimes speak, in connection with the determination of boundaries, of a *kariṇī-bhramaṇa*. A high official, seated on a she-elephant and followed by a number of subordinates, took a ride round the gift land and the subordinates marked off the boundary and noted down the details as the procession proceeded.¹

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³ The Mallasarul plate (*Select Inscriptions*, p. 363, text lines 15-16) speaks of the demarcation of boundaries with posts or pillars having the representations of lotuses and rosary. See also *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 12 and note 1; etc.

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⁴ See, e. g., *Select Inscriptions*, p. 345 (Baigram plate, line 19) and note 1.

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¹ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXV, pp. 67-68. Jājuka, an ancient king of Kānyakubja, is said to have granted to a Brāhmaṇa, by means of a *śāsana*, as much land in the Jodhpur region of Rajasthan as he could traverse in 4 *praharas* on horse-back (cf. Bhandarkar’s List, No. 200).

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For a simpler notification we may refer to the Sasanakota plates,² in which we have: “On the 10th day of the bright fortnight in the month of Phālguna in the first year of his own [reign] with his extensive sovereignty ever on the increase, [the illustrious Mādhavavarman] has given to Dhāraśarman of the Vatsa *gotra* and the Taittirīya *caraṇa*, for his own welfare, the village named Velputtoru in the district of Paru, as a gift for the Brāhmaṇa, carrying all the [customary] exemptions, with the libation of water.” The notification in Dadda’s grant,³ which is a lengthier one, begins with the statement of purpose which is ‘the increase of the glory and merit in this world and the next’ for the donor and his parents. This is followed by the name of the district and of the village granted, together with the specification of the privilege to be enjoyed by the donee, which included the collection of various taxes in cash and kind. The gift is stated to have been a perpetual one to be enjoyed by the donee and his descendants. Then come the names of the donee, his father, his *gotra* and the place of his origin, etc., as well as a reference to the libation of water. The occasion of the gift, which was omitted from this place, is recorded towards the end. It was the Rathasaptamī, the 7th day of the bright fortnight of Māgha, on which day, the gift of vehicles was supposed to be specially meritorious. It is thus interesting in this connection to note that the gift of land is stated in this case to have been accompanied with that of an elephant and a chariot. Boundaries are specified in the notification of such records as the Chevūru grant of Amma I,¹ which records a gift made in favour not of a Brāhmaṇa but of a warrior who received a village along with certain distinctions, as a reward for his meritorious services and devotion to the king, on the occasion of the anna-prāśana ceremony of a prince.²

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² *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIV, p. 238.

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³ Ibid., Vol. XXVII, pp. 200-01.

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¹ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVII, p. 46.

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² The ceremony is observed during the sixth month after the child's birth (cf. Manusmṛti, II, 34). For grants made on the occasions of the birth-day and the naming ceremony of a prince, see Bhandarkar's List, Nos. 368-69.

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The privileges to be enjoyed by the donees are not exactly the same in the records of different ages and areas. But an idea may be formed from their specification in certain early and medieval records. Thus the Early Pallava grants speak of the following immunities (parihāra): ‘not to be dug for salt’ (a-lavaṇa-khātaka); ‘to be treated as different from other parts of the district’ (a-rāṣṭra-sāmvinayika); ‘free from the obligation of the supply of bullocks by the villages successively for royal officers on tour’ (a-paramparā-balivarda); ‘free from the entry of royal agents’ (a-bhaṭa-praveśa); ‘free from the obligation of supplying boiled rice, pots, fire-wood, cot and shelter to royal officers on tour’ (a-kūra-collaka-vināśi-khaṭvā-saṁvāsa); ‘free from the obligation of supplying milk and curds, grass and wood, and myrobalan, vegetables and flowers’ (a-dugdha-dadhi-grahaṇa, a-tṛṇa-kāṣṭha-grahaṇa, a-harītaka-śāka-puṣpa-grahaṇa); ‘free from the obligation of paying various levies, etc.’ (a-kara-viṣṭi-koñjalla); etc.³ The Vākāṭaka inscriptions similarly speak of: ‘free from payment of taxes’ (a-kara-dāyī); ‘free from the entry of royal agents’ (a-bhaṭa-cchātra-prāveśya); ‘free from the obligation of supplying flowers and milk’ (a-puṣpa-kṣīra-sandoha); ‘free from the obligation of supplying free passage (or, ferry), camping, hide-seats and charcoal’ (a-cār-āsana-carm-āngāra, a-pār-āsana°); ‘not to be dug for salt and other objects’ (a-lavaṇa-kliṇṇa-kreṇi-khanaka); ‘together with hidden treasure and deposits’ (sa-nidhi, s-opanidhi); ‘together with fixed and occasional taxes' (*sa-kḷpt-opakḷpta*); 'for so long as the moon and sun endure'; 'for transmission to sons and grandsons'; etc.¹ According to the charters of the Pālas, the privileges of the donees were: 'upto the boundaries, grass and pasture lands [of the gift village]' (*sva-sīmā-tṛṇayūti-gocara-paryanta*); 'with the ground' (*sa-tala*); 'with the space [above the ground]' (*s-oddeśa*); 'with the mango and *madhūka* trees' (*s-āmra-madhūka*); 'with the waters and dry land' (*sa-jala-sthala*); 'with the pits and saline spots' (*sa-gart-oṣara*); 'with the tax from temporary tenants, etc.' (*s-oparikara*); 'with the *daś-āpacāra* or *daś-āparādha* (i.e. fines realised for ten minor offences)'; 'with things recovered from thieves' (*sa-caur-oddharaṇa*); 'with exemptions from all oppressions'; 'not to be entered by *cāṭas* and *bhaṭas* (i.e. royal agents; probably, policemen and peons)'; 'nothing to be taken [by way of tax, etc.]'; 'together with all revenues such as *bhāga* (i.e. royal share of the produce), *bhoga* (i.e. periodical supply of fruits, etc.), *kara* (taxes), *hiraṇya* (tax to be paid in coins), etc.'; 'according to the maxim of *bhūmi-cchidra* (i. e. the custom of allowing one bringing a piece of fallow or jungle land under cultivation to enjoy it without paying rent)'; 'to last as long as the moon, the sun and the earth endure'.²

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³ Cf. Suc. Sāt. L. Dec., pp. 186 ff., 192-93. The exemptions are sometimes referred to as of ‘eighteen kinds’, in which ‘eighteen’ really means ‘all’. See also below, Chapter VIII, Section v.

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In some cases, the donees were required to observe certain conditions such as that the land should not be sold or mortgaged, prostitutes should not be given quarters there, the donees should not form into an armed band, gambling should not be permitted on the land, etc.³ A condition was sometimes added to the effect that nonfulfilment of the specific conditions including loyalty to the king and good

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1. *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 414, 417, 422.
2. See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXIX, p. 5 and note 3. See also below, Chapter VIII, Section v.
3. See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXV, p. 218:

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*Ā-candr-ārkam=idaṃ bhojyam=ebhir=eṣāṃ ca vaṃśajaiḥ* |
*n=ādheyaṃ na ca vikreyaṃ sadā sanmārga-vartibhiḥ* ||
*Pany-āṅganānāṃ sadanaṃ na deyaṃ*
*dyūta-pracāro='pi nivāraṇīyaḥ* |
*śastr-ādikaṃ v=āpi na dhāraṇīyaṃ*
*sat-karma-niṣṭhair=bhavitavyam=ebhiḥ* ||

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relations with the neighbouring localities by the donees would lead to the confiscation of the gift land.¹

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¹ Cf. *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 423-24: *rājñāṁ sapt-āṅge rājye a-droha-saṅgrāmaṁ kurvatāṁ=anumodatāṁ vā rājño bhūmi-cchedaṁ kurvataḥ a-steyaṁ=iti. ato='nyathā*

Linked texts (3)

Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit
Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Garuḍapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit