The Age of the Imperial Guptas c6.36

c6.36

The Damodarpur plates throw interesting light on the conditions prevailing in Northern Bengal from the middle of the 5th to that of the 6th century A.D. The inscriptions on them are not merely grants of land and therefore they are slightly different from the later copper plate grants. They are really deeds of transfer of property. In the case of the earliest of them we find that in G.E. 124= 443-4 A.D. a Brāhmaṇa named Karpaṭika applied for a gift of some untilled land at the same time promising to pay the price at the rate of three Dīnāras or gold coins as the price of each Kulya-vāpa. One Kulyavāpa of land was given by the charter engraved on this plate according to this application. The translator of this inscription states that the land was given to him after the payment of the money. So also, in G.E. 129= 448-9 A.D. some one, whose name cannot be read at present, applied for a similar grant of land and five Droṇa measures were sold to him on receipt of the money. The first applicant Karpaṭika wanted the land for the performance of Agnihotras and the unknown applicant of the second plate wanted the land for the performance of the five great sacrifices (Mahāyajñas). In the case of the third plate a village head man (Grāmika) named Nābhaka applied for the sale of some land to settle some distinguished Brāhmaṇas. Upon the recommendation of the Pustapāla, Patradāsa, on the receipt of the money from the hands of Nābhaka and after inspection by village officials, one Kulyavāpa of uncultivated (Khila) land, measuring eight by nine Nalas, was sold to him. In this case three other men named Sthāyapāla, Kapila and Śrībhadra are mentioned but the decay of the inscription did not permit the learned decipherer to connect them with the rest of the narrative. In the fourth plate from Damodarpur, which also belongs to the reign of Budhagupta, an application is made by the *Nagara-śreṣṭhin* Ṛbhupāla for the sale of some habitable land for building two temples and two store rooms. In his application Ṛbhupāla states that “ in the village of Doṅgā, in Himavac-chikhara (the summit of the Himalayas) I have formerly given four *Kulya-vāpas* of land to the god Kokāmukha-svāmin and seven *Kulyavāpas* to the god Śveta-Varāha-svāmin. Now in the neighbourhood of these cultivated pieces of land I wish to build two temples with store-houses for these two gods.” The application was granted and some building-land sold to the *Nagara-śreṣṭhin* when it had been reported by a board of three *Pustapālas* that eleven *Kulyavāpas* of land had been actually given by the former to these two gods. We learn from the fifth plate that a nobleman (*Kula-putra*) of Ayodhyā named Amṛtadeva applied for the sale of some uncultivated land for being converted into a religious trust for the repairs to and the supply of necessaries of the worship of the god Śveta-Varāha svāmin in the temple in the forest in this locality. According to this application five *Kulyavāpas* of land were sold to the applicant after taking fifteen *Dināras* from him. These five *Kulyavāpas* consisted of uncultivated fields along with building-lands (*vāstu*). In this case the inscription records that the land was given to the god Śveta-Varāha-svāmin. Therefore, the fifth Damodarpur plate is not merely a deed of transfer land by the State to a private individual but a grant of land to a god as well.