The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s2.17

c18.s2.17

das'āparādhaḥ; sometimes the more expressive terms like daṇḍāya or pratishiddhāya are used.(86) These alternative forms will show that Dr. Ghosal's view that the expression confers upon the donee the right to be exempted, at least in part, from the ordinary penalties for the commission of some of the traditional offences(87) is hardly sound. The incorrectness of this view will be at once manifest when it is remembered that the expression figures not only in grants given to Brahmanas, but also in those given to temples. Most of the village disputes were tried in the villages themselves; it was customary to impose a fine even in civil cases on the unsuccessful litigants. A part of these fines was spent in meeting the expenses connected with the trial of the case before the Village Panchayat; the balance, which normally went into the state treasury, was diverted to the donees in the case of the alienated villages.