Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c19.4

c19.4

A copper-plate inscription, dated Śaka 734 (812-13 A.D.), of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa chief Kakka II Suvarṇavarṣa of Lāṭa or Gujarāt was published in the *Indian Antiquary*, Vol. XII, pp. 156 ff. It records the grant of the village of Vaḍapadraka in the Aṅkoṭṭaka eighty-four (*Aṅkoṭṭaka-caturaśīti-antarggata-Vaḍapadrakābhidhāna-grāma*). Aṅkoṭṭaka is modern Akoṭa, a suburb of Baroda (Vaḍapadraka). The Set-Mahet plate³ of the Gāhaḍavāla king Govindacandra, dated Vikrama Saṃvat 1186 (1130 A.D.), records the grant of certain villages in the Pattalā or district called Vādā (or, Vājā) Caturaśīti. Another grant⁴ of Madanapāla dated V.S. 1164 (1108 A.D.), similarly speaks of the gift of a village in Māṇighapura-Caturāsikā, in which Caturāsikā is no doubt the same as Caturāśitikā or Caurāsī. It should, however, not be supposed that only the word 'eighty-four' is associated with the names of districts. We have numerous other numbers similarly associated with geographical units.¹ A Pratijāgaraṇaka or Pargaṇā within the dominions of the Paramāra kings of Malwa is called Saptāśīti-pratijāgaraṇaka (i.e. Pargaṇā consisting of eighty-seven villages) in an inscription of V.S. 1331.² But such numbers as 87 were not as popular as 84 in the context of geographical names.