Indian Epigraphy c16.s5.56

c16.s5.56

Among medieval records of the Deccan, mention may be made of the Kalegaon plates² (1261 A.D.) of Yādava Mahādeva, which refer to the grant of land together with the eight *bhogas* or enjoyments including *śulka*, *daṇḍa*, *dāṇa*, *kāruka*, *maulika*, *śrotra*, *nidhi*, *nikṣepa*, *jala*, *pāṣāṇa* and *tejaḥ-svāmya* and state that the gift land was not to be pointed out even by a finger by the subordinate rulers and royal officers (*rāja-rājapuruṣair=apy=anaṅguli-nirdeśyam*) and that the grant was made with the libation of *hiraṇy-ākṣat-odaka* (water with gold and rice) in place of the usual libation of water only. Although the *bhogas* or privileges are specified to be eight in number, the items included in the category are eleven. *Aṣṭa-bhoga*, mentioned in many other records of the Deccan, thus indicates privileges roughly grouped in eight classes. In some inscriptions of the Vijayanagara kings, the eight *bhogas* appear to be enumerated as *nidhi* (treasure trove), *nikṣepa* (the same as *upanidhi*, i.e. deposits or accumulation on the soil), waters (i.e. fishing rights), *pāṣāṇa* (hills, i.e. quarrying rights), *akṣiṇin* (actual income) *āgāmin* (future income), *siddha* (income from land under cultivation) and *sādhya* (income from land that may be brought under cultivation).³ *Śulka* and *dāṇa* of the Kalegaon plates appear to indicate different kinds of customs duties and *daṇḍa* fines apparently for the ten offences mentioned in many records. In connection with *dāṇa*, it may be pointed out that Dāṇī is a family name in many areas and the *Mahārāṣṭra Śabdakoṣa* explains it as ‘the officer collecting the tax or corn’ or ‘the officer to store the corn collected as tax from the farmers’. Maulika means the principal or main tax and kāruka seems to be a tax on artisans and craftsmen. Maulika may also mean ‘perquisites of hereditary officers’. It included in that case the receipt of the headman of a village who enjoyed a share of most of the articles produced or sold in the village. Śrotra has been explained as the same as Marāṭhī śilotarā=śilotari=śilotrī meaning a tax in kind collected from the cultivators by a lessee of State land. The same word seems to be used in another epigraph¹ as śrotaka in the sense of a kind of rent. Tejaḥ-svāmya, which is often mentioned separately from the aṣṭa-bhoga,² possibly means ‘ownership with complete control’. Some inscriptions speak of āvāta, vāt-ādeya, a-kara-vāt-ottara, bhūt-opātta-pratyāya, etc., in the list of the donee’s privileges.³ This seems to refer to any income resulting from changes caused by nature and her agencies, e.g. storms, earthquakes, etc.