The Age of the Imperial Guptas c6.77

c6.77

In form, the inscriptions on the Faridpur plates, resemble those on the Damodarpur ones. The first plate, that of the third year of Dharmāditya records that during the reign of the *Mahārājādhirāja* Dharmāditya and during the government of the *Mahārāja* Sthāṇudatta and the period of office of the *Viṣayapati* Jajāva in the *Maṇḍala* of Vāraka, one Vātabhoga applied for the sale of some land to bestow it on a Brāhmaṇa. On the report of the Pustapāla Vinayasena four Kulyavāpas of land were sold to Vātabhoga on receipt of 12 Dīnaras or gold coins. Two points in this inscription deserve special mention; (1) “There is in this district the rule established along the Eastern sea that cultivated lands are things which are sold according to the rate of the sum of four Dīnaras;” (2) “and then the feet of the Emperor receives the sixth part of the price according to the law here.”¹ The mention of the Eastern sea bars the proposed identification of Vāraka with Varendra.² The gain of a sixth part of the price by His Majesty is a new feature in ancient Indian transfers of land. The land purchased by Vātabhoga was bestowed by the same inscription to a Brāhmaṇa named Candra-svāmin as in the case of the fifth Damodarpur plate, in which case the land was given to a god.