Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

SR No.: 032582
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1949
Total Pages: 526
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 31 MB

Page 349

244
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXVIII
The details of the grants of Anangabhima III recorded in the present charter throw some alditional light on the religious activities of this Ganga monarch. There are altogether seven grants detailed in the charter, of which three are mentioned together, and they may be analysed as follows.
1. On the occasion of the Mins-savikranti on Saturday, Chaitra sudi 9, in Saka 1151 (i.e., on the 23rd February, 1230 A.C.), king Anangabhima III, while he was apparently taking a sacred bath in the waters of the Mahānadi betwoen the temples of the gods Chitrēśvara and Visvēśvara at the Abhinava-Vārāṇasi kataku ( city of or camp or residence at New Banāras') granted twenty vidis of land at Puranagrama in the Săilo vishaya to a Brämhanu named Sankarshaņånandašarman. The grant is said to have been made in connection with a number of gifts of land made by the king on the occasion of a dana-sägara performed by him according to the recommendations of the Mahābhārata. The donee Sankarshunānandaśarman was a student of the Kinva branch of the Yajurvēda and belonged to the Ghritukausika götra. The grant was made a permanently revenue-free gift for the priti or favour of the god Purushottama.
According to Wilson's Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms, a vai of land in Orissa is equal to twenty mānas. A müna seems to be otherwise called bigha and is said to be equal to twenty-five gunthas at Cuttack. A guxlha (measuring " 121 square yards or the fortieth part of an acre" in some places) is regarded as sixteen biswas, while a biswa is said to be one-twentieth of a bigha. This seems to show that a vāļi is sometimes regarded as equal to 12 acres of land. But there seems to be varying areas of the vili prevalent in different parts of the country and there may have also been difference between the areas of a viti of the present day and that recognised by the Ganga kings of Orissa in the thirteenth century A.C. This is possibly suggested by the fact that the Pramoda Abhidhāna, an Oriya dictionary published in 1942, regards a māna as equal to one acre of land and a vāļi as equal to 20 acres.
2. On Thursday, Māgha badi 6, in the following Saka year, meaning Saka 1152 (i.e., on the Occasion of the Makara-saikrānti on the 26th December 1230 A. C.) the king, while he was taking a sacred bath in the same river (Mahanadi), granted a township covering thirty vilis of land to the same Brāhmaṇa Sankarshaņānandaśarman. This grant was made in connection with a number of others made during the month by the king according to the recommendations of the Vāmana Purāna. Of the thirty välis of land granted, twenty vītis of corn land lay in the abovementioned Puranagrāma, while ten vāțis of homestead land were in Jayanagaragrāma. Both the villages were situated in the same Süilo vishaya probably in the vicinity of each other. The township contained four houses resembling royal residences and endowed with walls, mukhamandapas and madhya-mandapas, and also thirty other houses inhabited by a number of citizens. The inhabitants of the township included a number of merchants such as a perfumery & worker or dealer in conch-shells, a splitter of wood (patakara), a goldsmith and a brazier or a worker in bellmetal. Their names were Vāpuli, Narayana, Damodara, Madhava, Chitra, Sóma, Välhu, Kēšava, Mahädēva, Narasimha and Sivu. There were the sellers of betel (tāmbülika) named Mahānāda, Sõmã and Irandu, the florist named Manū, the maker of or dealer in sugar (gudika) named Mahādēva, the milkmen named Dhiru and Gabhi, the weavers named Nägu and Jagai, the oilmen named Gaņū and Sunya, the potters named Arjuna and Visū, and the fishermen (Kaivartta) named Rājā, Vāsū and Padma. There were also a barber, some craftsmen and a washerman. This interesting list of the people of different castos inhabiting an Oriya township of the thirteenth century throws considerable light on the Orissan social life in that age. The grant of the township was made a permanently revenue-free gift for obtaining the favour of Lord Purushottama.
That I Vafi or Vafika was equal to 20 manas and I mana to 25 gunthas in the age of the imperial Gangasis known from the Alalpur plates of Narasimha II to be edited in a future i Rue of this journal.