History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.74

v3.c43.74

Yāj. I. 133 prescribes that the king should daily make gifts to brāhmaṇas learned in the Veda, of milch cows, gold, land, houses and the requisites of marriage (i. e. maidens, expenses of marriage &c.). This was nothing new that was prescribed by Yāj. It has been followed for ages by the kings. The Vanaparva²⁰¹⁷ 186. 15 states that he who makes a gift of a maiden in the brāhma form or of land enjoys bliss in the world of Indra. We find from the inscriptions of Uṣavadāta²⁰¹⁸ (probably in the 1st century A. D.), son-in-law of Nahapāna, at Karle and Nasik that he gave 3 lakhs of cows, 16 villages to gods and brāhmaṇas, fed one lakh of brāhmaṇas every year, got eight brāhmaṇas married at his own expense at Prabhāsa (in Kathiawar), built flights of steps on the river Bārṇāsā, constructed quadrangles, houses and halting places (*pratiśraya*) at Bharukaccha (modern Broach), Daśapura (in Malwa), Govardhana (Nasik) and Śorpāraga (modern Sopara), constructed wells and tanks; kept free ferry boats over the rivers Ibā, Pārādā, Damaṇā, Tāpī, Karabeṇā, Dāhanukā (all between Thana and Surat); established meeting halls and shelters for gratuitous distribution of water; conferred 32000 cocoanut trees in Nanaṅgola (modern Nargol) on the assembly of brāhmaṇas of the Caraka Śākhā at Rāmatīrtha in Śorpāraga and three other places. He adds that he purchased from a brāhmaṇa for 4000 kārṣāpaṇas a field that originally belonged to the brāhmaṇa's father and made a grant of it for supplying food to the assembly of monks coming from all quarters that dwelt in the cave constructed by him. This is certainly a formidable list of benefactions for one ruler.