Indian Epigraphy c13.3

c13.3

We have seen above how, while making grants of land, the donor often emphasized the virtue of giving such gifts, especially to Brāhmaṇas, and the sacred nature of rent-free holdings created by past rulers, by inserting one or more benedictory and minatory verses in the deeds of grant. The stanzas generally extoll the donor of gifts and affirm the merit accruing to those who respect the inviolability of grants made by others and denounce the inequity of those who deprive donees of the gift land, and declare the punishment which awaits those who resume such gifts. The verses are sometimes also quoted in connection with the sale of land since there was a tendency to represent a sale of land also as a gift by a sort of popular fiction.²