Indian Epigraphy c11.t8.7

c11.t8.7

Some early documents like the Damodarpur plates³ have no exhortation as such, while many charters of the early period have a simple exhortation. Thus in the Ipur plates, the king advises his own officials to collect no rent from the gift village and to see to the protection of the gift. Only one customary verse is quoted in this connection. The item is not elaborate also in records like the Sasanakota plates, in which we have a prose passage threatening the violators of the grant with the commitment of the five major sins,⁴ though this is reinforced by three benedictory and minatory stanzas ascribed in this case to Manu. The more elaborate exhortation in Dadda’s grant covers about 9 lines of writing out of the total of 30. A long passage in ornate prose in this case is followed by four of the customary verses, here ascribed to Vedavyāsa.⁵ The prose passage first states that nobody should interfere with the donee who was entitled to enjoy the gift land in whatever way he pleased, by cultivating it himself or by leasing it out to others. After this, the donor addresses the future rulers of his own lineage and others requesting them to approve of the grant and to maintain it in view of the fact that the merit of the grant is to be shared by the donor of land and the protector of the donor’s grant and that fortune is fickle and life impermanent. The violator of the grant is next threatened with the commitment of the five major sins.