Indian Epigraphy c16.s6.24

c16.s6.24

Many of the authorities cited above mention the *Nivartana* as one-tenth of the *Gocarman* which is also mentioned in some inscriptions.¹ Originally, the *Gocarman* may have indicated that area of land which could be covered by the hides of cows slaughtered in a sacrifice and was granted to the priests as sacrificial fee. But the expression is differently interpreted by later authorities. Thus while many of the writers explain it as ten times a *Nivartana* which is however given various areas,² others offer quite vague indications regarding the area of the *Gocarman*. Nīlakaṇṭha’s commentary on the *Mahābhārata* suggests that a piece of land large enough to be encompassed by straps of a single cow’s hide was called a *Gocarman*,³ while the *Parāśarasaṃhitā* and *Bṛhaspatisaṃhitā* appear to suggest that it was the area of land where one thousand cows could freely graze in the company of a hundred bulls.⁴ According to the *Viṣṇusaṃhitā*, the area of the land, sufficient to maintain a person for a whole year with its produce, was called *Gocarman*.⁵ Ballāla’s *Dānasāgara* quotes a stanza from Vṛddha-Vasiṣṭha according to which a plot of land measuring 10 rods square, a rod being ten cubits long, is one *Gocarman* in area; or its area is 15 × 15 such rods. The passage indicating the second alternative is however explained by Ballāla differently and he says that a *Gocarman* may be 10 rods by 15 rods of the above length.⁶