Indian Epigraphy c16.s5.82

c16.s5.82

In earlier records, the rent-free holdings in the possession of gods and Brāhmaṇas were usually called devadeya or devadāya and brahmadeya or brahmadāya respectively. Gradually the word agrahāra became popular in South India in the sense of a rent-free village in the possession of Brāhmaṇas, although occasionally the word was used in a wider sense since we have also reference to dev-āgrahāra, vaiśy-āgrahāra, etc. Other expressions for rent-free holdings, noticed especially in South Indian inscriptions, are mānya, namasya, sarva-mānya, sarva-namasya, namasya-vṛtti, etc.¹ In modern documents of Bengal, the rent-free holding in the possession of a god is called devottara (Sanskrit devatrā) and that of a Brāhmaṇa bhogottara (possibly Sanskrit bhogatrā) or brahmottara (probably Sanskrit brahmatrā), while the rent-free holding in the possession of non-Brahmanical communities was sometimes called mahātrāṇa, etc.