Administrative System of the Marathas c26.s3.19

c26.s3.19

The first couplet of the Sanskrit imprecatory verse also is inserted in this inscription. In fact innumerable illustrations of this last practice may be given from old Indian donatory inscription as is well known to all students of Indian History. In the Kalas Budrukh plates of Bhillama III (Shaka year 948), we read that the gift was made to twenty Brahmans with great honour and water in hand—hastodakaṃ kṛtvā and the terms also are strikingly similar to those of the Maratha Danapatras. They run as follows:— Sasīmā-paryantaṃ savṛkshamālākulaṃ satṛṇakāṣhṭhaṃ sa prabhṛti-kānuka-vishaya-āśrayaṃ sarid-vāpī-kūpa-kūpikā-taḍāga-dīrghikā-jalasthala-khanyākara-mṛdvanaushadhi-prāsāda-gopur-opetaṃ sarvvāyasthāna-sahitaṃ namasyama karavāṭottaraṃ putra pautrādyanvy-opabhogyaṃ achāṭa-bhāṭa praveśaṃ pūrvva datta dvijadāyadevadāya varjjaṃ vasad bhojya vṛttiṃ Kalasa nāmanaṃ grāmaṃ pradadau, of course with the usual imprecation. The Gaddak inscriptions of Viraballala deva of Hayasala dynasty¹⁰ records the gift of the village Hombalalu to Chaddrabhushan Panditadeva (Shaka year 1114) with—nidhinikṣepa jalapāṣāṇārāmādi sahitam tribhogyābhyantaramaṣṭabhogateṣhja (jaḥ) svāmyayuktaṃ śulkadaṇḍādi sakala dravyo-pārjjanopetaṃ, etc. It is needless to multiply these instances. Let us only quote another Yadava inscription that of Rama Chandra Deva the last king of the dynasty. A grant of Rama Chandra Deva Yadava dated 1212 śaka or 1291 A.D., records that "under the orders of Shri Rama Sri Krishna Deva governs the whole province of the Konkan. For the sake of causing the prolongation of Shri Ram Chandra Deva's life, etc., he giveth to Brahmans, with gold and water, the village of Anjora—with its hamlets limited to its proper bounds with its grass, timber, water and forest trees mines and hidden treasures together with the land marks"—Pallīsahitaḥ svasīmāparyantaḥ tṛṇakāṣṭhodakopetaḥ savṛkṣamālākulah nidhi nikṣepasahitaḥ caturāghātopetaḥ hiraṇyodaka pūrvvakaṃ pradattaḥ.¹⁹ This certainly reads like Shahu's Danapatra quoted above.