Indian Epigraphy c16.s5.20

c16.s5.20

The normal privileges going with the rent-free holdings in the possession of Brāhmaṇas proficient in the four Vedas are enumerated in the Chammak plates¹ of Vākāṭaka Pravarasena II (middle of the 5th century A.D.) as follows : a-kara-dāyī, a-bhaṭa-cchātra-prāveśya, a-paramparā-go-balivarda, a-puṣpa-kṣīra-sandoha, a-cār-āsana-carm-āṅgāra, a-lavaṇa-klinna-kreṇi-khanaka, sarva-viṣṭi-parihāra-parihṛta, sa-nidhi, s-opanidhi, sa-klpt-opakḷpta, ā-candrāditya-kālīya and putra-pautr-ānugamaka. In this list, a-kara-dāyī is of course the same as a-karada (free from tax) of the earlier record. In a-bhaṭa-cchātra-prāveśya, the word chātra, literally ‘an umbrella-bearer [of the king]’ but actually a Pāik or Piāda like a Bhaṭa or the leader of a group of them, has been added. In a-paramparā-go-balivarda, go, ‘a cow’, has been similarly added to balivarda ‘bullock’, suggesting that cows were sometimes requisitioned by the officers on tour. In a-cār-āsana-carmāngāra, pāra, i.e. ferrying of rivers, is sometimes found instead of cāra which thus seems to mean ‘movement’ or ‘passage’. This thus seems to refer to the free passage, free camping and free supply of hide-seats and charcoal usually offered by the villagers to the touring royal officers. In a-lavaṇa-klinna-kreṇi-khanaka, the expression klinna-kreṇi, ‘moist commodity (sugar, liqour, etc.)’, is more explicit that klinna in the earlier epigraph. Sarva-viṣṭi-parihāra-parihṛta refers to the freedom from the obligation of supplying free labour of all kinds. Sa-klpt-opaklpta seems to mean ‘together with the fixed and unfixed [imposts]’. The word klpta is used in Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra (II. vi) in the sense of one of the seven principal sources of the king’s income,¹ while the Motupalli inscription of Kākatīya Gaṇapati mentions klpta-kara and klpta-śulka apparently in the senses of ‘fixed tax’ and ‘fixed tolls’ respectively.² The last two privileges refer to the permanent nature of the grant to be enjoyed by the donees and their descendants in succession. Sometimes a-paśu-medhya (i.e. free from the obligation of supplying goats, etc., for sacrifice) is added to the above list of exemptions.³