A History of Assam c8.2

c8.2

THE first authentic information regarding ancient Kāmarupa is furnished by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang who visited India in the first half of the seventh century of our era and on his return to China wrote an account of his travels and gave a fairly comprehensive description of the various kingdoms which he visited. Apart from what he has recorded and from one incident mentioned in Bana's *Harsha-Charita* and another in the story of a Chinese invasion of Tirhut, our knowledge of Kāmarupa prior to the end of the twelfth century is confined to the information contained in the inscriptions on certain ancient copper-plates and on a rock on the bank of the Brahmaputra, near Tezpur. It was the practice of ancient Indian rulers, when making grants of land to Brāhmans, to record the fact on copper-plates which served as the donees' title deeds. The inscriptions were drawn up by pandits attached to the court, and the language was usually Sanskrit verse. They commenced with a brief narrative of the ruler's ancestry, and usually gave some account of his personal qualities, his capital and the extent of country ruled by him. After this preamble, which to us forms the most interesting part, followed the name and other particulars of the grantee and the specification of the lands granted to him. None of the old Assam grants bear dates other than the regnal year of the ruling monarch. Most of them were recorded on a set of three copper-plates, of which the centre one only was inscribed on both sides. These plates had a hole at one end, and were held together by a ring passed through this hole. To the ring was attached the seal of the ruler, usually heart-shaped, containing in relief his emblem (*e.g.*, an elephant *en face*) and below it his name and titles. Altogether seven sets of copper-plates have been discovered, the inscriptions on which record grants of land made by the kings of ancient Kāmarupa, viz.:—