The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c18.156

c18.156

The Herbal Inscription of the year 975 A.D. from the Dhārwār district shows that land could sometimes be alienated as dowry. Here it is recorded that two or three generations earlier some large pieces of territory had been given as the dowry of a princess.⁶ Grants were sometimes made for the daily feeding of some people. Thus in the Baloda Plates of Tivaradeva, called sovereign of Kośala in the south, a village is granted “together with treasures, together with deposits,” etc., etc., to feed daily thirty Brāhmaṇas, or others who might alight at the rest-house of Bilvapadraka. It was a condition of the grant that the charity was to be managed by the Adhiṣṭhāna or local authorities.⁷ Incidentally, the record testifies to the royal monopoly of mines. The Mayidavolu Plates of Sivaskandavarman from the Kiṣṭna district bring to view the state-monopoly of salt and other dues. "(Let the area of land granted be) free from diggings for salt, free from (the supply) of bullocks in succession, free from the entrance of soldiers, free from (the supply of) boiled rice, water-pots . . . cots and dwellings—with these and all the other immunities prescribed by the rules regarding all Brahmadeyas . . ."¹ The demands for the various articles seem to have been made for soldiers, policemen and petty officials. Like some others this inscription furnishes a vivid explanation of the clause, which occurs so frequently in grants, that the area in question is not to be entered by Cāṭas and Bhaṭas.