The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.169

c21.169

Our epigraphs supply us with some interesting information about a few legal points. Land transfers and similar transactions were done in writing, and the title deeds were regularly attested. Two of the three Kanheri inscriptions, (133) which record grants in favour of the local Buddhist Sangha, are attested to by two witnesses each. In the 3rd inscription there are no witnesses, probably because the donor was the premier of the kingdom. The spurious Ganga grant of Vira Nolamba is attested to by four witnesses. (134) Sometimes the principal officers and the whole population of a district are mentioned as witnesses of a transaction, as in the Kadba plates of Govinda III. (135) If the debtor was a man of good status and well known character, loans were sometimes advanced on personal security; a Raṭṭa inscription informs us that Rudrabhaṭṭa, the founder of the Banahatti house, had raised a loan of 100 golden coins on the security of a letter of his name. He had agreed to call himself Rudraṭa and not Rudrabhaṭṭa, as long as the debt was not paid. (136)