Indian Antiquary Vol 31

SR No.: 032523
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 556
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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382
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1902.
the village, Tenna, which was given to the son : Tenna is more than eight hundred miles away from Pataliputra ; and we find it only through the precise information, given in the record, that it was in the LÂta country and was surrounded by certain specified villages. And even in case No. 2, in which there is only a distance of some ninety miles between the place, Valabht, from which the grantee himself came, and the village, Vadapadraka, which was given to him, the mention of Valabbi is no help towards the identification of Vadapadraka; the clue as to the position of the latter place, which has to be found, not anywhere near Walâ in Kathiâwâr, but somewhere in Gujarat, is furnished by the fact, stated in the record, that the grant was made by a prince who was a lord of L&ta. In fact, the epithets ending in vinirgata are chiefly of interest in marking important ancient capitals and centres of learning, religion, commerce, &c., and in helping to account for the existence, in certain localities, of communities, such as those of the Audichya, Kanojia, and Srigauda Brahmans of Gujarât, which claim foreign extraction. And even the epithets ending in vestavya may not have any bearing as a help towards localising records, when they do not apply to the actual grantees themselves. But the case is very different when the epithet ending in rdstavya qualifies the actual grantee. Obviously, the grant of a village, or any similar donation, cannot be of any practical use, unless that village or other estate is sufficiently near to the grantee's place of residence for him to be able to conveniently arrange for and superintend the cultivation of his property and collect bis dues. The mention of the grantee's place of actual abode may at any time be the only clue that we have towards the localisatioa of a record. . And it may be of very particular importance, when we consider the extent to which the copper-plate records bave been liable, as is so pointedly illustrated by the so-called Vakkalëri plates of A. D. 757, to travel far away from the localities to which they really belong.17 In the case, therefore, of the word odstavya, or of any substitute for it. it is important that there should be nothing incorrect in our application of the epithet in which it occurs.
There are plenty of cases in which there is no doubt at all as to the application of either of the technical terms in question, because the texts are of such a nature as not to permit of any possibility of ambiguity. For instance : -
1.- In the two sets of plates of A. D. 641 from Sankheda, no pedigree of the grantee was given, and the records conveyed fields in villages named Suvarnârapalli and Kshirasara, - Dasapuravinirggata-Kshtrasaragr&mavastavya-Bharadvajasagðtra-Vâjasaneya Madhyandinasabrahmacharibrahmana-Suryyâya 18 - "to the Brahman Sarya, who has come from Dasapura and dwells at the village of Kshirasara and belongs to the Bbaradvája gôtra and is a student of the V Ajabanêya-MAdhyadina (sobool)." Here, we sre given both the place of departure and the place of residence of the grantee himself. Dasapura, whence he came, is the modern Dasor or Mandasôr in Malwa.10 And, from the fact that the person who made the grant was the Gurjara prince Dadda II., and still more particularly from the statement, made in the record, that the two villages in question were in the Sargamak betaka district (vishaya), we know that Kshfrasara, where the grantee dwelt, is to be found, with Savar Arapalli, somewhere near Sankhede in the Baroda territory, about a hundred and forty miles towards the south-west-by-south from Dasőr-Mandasőr.
But, even when genealogical statements were introduced, which was usually more or less the case, the texts were often constructed in such a manner as not to permit of any ambiguity. Thus:
2. - The Baroda plates of A. D. 812 conveyed a village named Vadapadraka, -érf Valabhvinirggata-tachobAturvvidyasamânya-VAstya(tøya)yanasagtr-Madhyandinasabrl(bra)hmachari-brab
11 See Vol. XXX. above, p. 212, note 41.
11 Ep. Ind. Vol V. p. 40, line 18 1., and note 8. In the record which correctly gives Dašapura instead of Dulapura, rivdnin..
we wed instead of vdatavyo. Regarding the point that the person who issued theme oharto was Dadda IL, and not a fourth person of that name, see subsequent Note of this serien
10 seo Vol. XV. above, p. 104, and Gupta Inders. p. 79, and note 2.