History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.1121

v4.c63.1121

¹⁰⁸² दत्त्वा भूमिं निबन्धं वा कृत्वा लेख्यं तु कारयेत् । आगामिभद्रनृपतिपरिज्ञानाय पार्थिवः ॥ याज्ञ. I. 318. The व्य. मयूख p. 27 states that it occurs in बृह. also. In कात्या. (882) we have उदकं चैव दासश्च निबन्धो यः क्रमागतः (q. by अपरार्क p. 725, वि. र. p 504). 'निबन्धो वाणिज्यादिकारिभिः प्रतिवर्षं प्रतिमासं वा किञ्चिद्द्द्रव्यमस्मै ब्राह्मणायास्मै देवतायै वा देयमित्यादि प्रभुसमयलब्धोऽर्थः । स्मृतिच. II. p. 55 ; निबन्धः आकरादौ राजादिदत्तं नियतलब्ध्यम् । व्य. मयूख p. 28 and दीपकलिका (reading नियतद्रव्यम्); दायतत्त्व p. 166 states that this was the explanation given by कल्पतरु. निबन्धो राज्ञामुकरस्यैकस्मिन् पर्णभरकक्रमुकभरकादावियन्ति पणदीनि देयानीति शासनरूपतया यद् वृत्तिस्वेन दीयते तदुच्यते । व्य. प्र. p. 445. The word "nibandha" means a periodic payment or allowance in cash or kind permanently granted by a king, a corporation or a village or a caste to a person, a family, a *maṭh* or a temple. The Mit. (on Yāj. I. 318 and II. 121) explains it as a delivery or payment of so many leaves (of betel or the like) on each bundle of leaves or so many rupees on each load of merchandise or so many betelnuts on each load of betelnuts; the Sm. C. explains it as the wealth to be obtained under the order or direction of a king or other authority that dealers in commodities should pay every year or month a certain amount to a certain brāhmaṇa or shrine; the V. Mayūkha (p. 28) explains "what is granted by a king or the like, to be obtained at. fixed times from mines and the like" and on p. 131 paraphrases it as "*vṛtti*". Nibandha is rendered as corrody by Colebrooke in his Digest, but as observed by the Privy Council in *Fattehsangji v. Desai Kallianraiji* L. R. 1. I. A. 34 at p. 51 it is not a very happy rendering. In *Ghelabhai v. Hargovan* 36 Bom. 94 (at p. 101) the explanation of *nibandha* by the V. Mayūkha is construed as conveying that it is not the king alone who can make a grant of a nibandha and it is held that the office of a hereditary priest (*yajamāna-vṛtti*) is a nibandha and ranks as immovable property. Bombay Regulation V of 1827, section 1, clause 1 includes hereditary offices among immovable property. Vide *Collector of Thana v. Krishnanath* 5 Bom. 322 at pp. 331-32 (for a discussion of what is included in *nibandha*), *Collector of Thana v. Hari* 6 Bom. 546 (F. B.) at pp. 555-559, *Lakshmandas v. Manohar* 10 Bom. 149, *Jatindra Mohan v. Ghanashyama* 50 Cal. 266 at p. 271 (for various definitions of *nibandha* and for the view that an annuity in favour of the settlor's daughter for her life and then to her son charged on and payable out of the settlor's estate was a nibandha). With Vijñāneśvara's examples of nibandha one may compare an inscription of śake 1088 (1167 A D.) from the Ron Taluka of Dharwar District in E. I. vol. 20 p. 109 at p. 121 ('the income granted by the dealers in betel leaves: a hundred leaves for one cart load, a hundred for a bullock load, fifty for a man's load').