Epigraphia Indica Vol 29

SR No.: 032583
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1951
Total Pages: 432
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 21 MB

Page 183

86
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXIX
possibly means one enjoying a free holding. Pustakapāla was the record-keeper. The word kūjakolasa is difficult to explain.
The village is said to have been granted together with the uddēša (space above the ground called tala), with subjects such as the weavers, gökūta (milkmen, called Gaura in Oriya) and saundika (vintners) and with gulmakas (outposts) at the kheta (village or hamlet), ghatta (barbour) and naditarasthāna (ferry). Another interesting passage says that the grant was made a-lēkhani.. pravēšatayā bhūmichchhidra-pidhāna-nyayēna. The expression a-lēkhani-pravēšatayā seems to mean that the grant would never in future have to be the subject of another document. That is to say that the village could not be regranted to any other family and that its ownership could not be transferred by the donee to some other family. In inscriptions we usually find the expression bhūmichchhidra-nyāya. This nyāya was based on the custom according to which a person who brought a piece of fallow or jungle land under cultivation for the first time was allowed to enjoy it as a rent-free holding. The word chhidra in this case no doubt refers to the furrowing of the land. But the idea of chhidra-pidhāna or' covering a hole' seems to have developed out of a misunderstanding of the original meaning of the nyāya. The idea in bhūmi-chchhidra-pidhāna-nyāya was probably that the loss of lands owing to various causes was thought to be compensated for by making free gifts of some of them. It may, however, also mean the custom relating to the reclamation of fallow land.
Of the geographical names mentioned in the charter, the location of Dakshina-Tõsalā (i.e., "Tõsali) and Yamagartā-mandala has already been discussed. Guhēsvarapätaka, the capital of the Bhauma-Kara kings, was probably modern Jājpur or a locality in its suburbs. Tamura vishaya, Pachhama (Paschima) khanda, Sāntiragrāma and Kõmyösanga cannot be satisfactorily identified. The headquarters of Tamura may, however, be located at modern Tamur (21°18" N. 85°14" E.) in the former Pal-Lahara State. In regard to the name of the khanda, it may be pointed out that one of the Gañjām plates of Dandimahādēvi records the grant of a village in the Pūrva khanda of the Varadākhanda vishaya in the Köngöda mandala. This seems to suggest that the Pūrva and Paschima khandas were merely the eastern and western divisions of a vishaya. Dharmapātti, the native village of the donee, cannot be identified ; but Takāri, where his family originally lived, is known from numerous other records as a great seat of learned Brāhmaṇas. It was variously called Tarkari, Tarkarikā, Tarkāra, Takkära, Takäri and Takkārikā. Sometimes it is said to have been situated in the Madhyadēša division of India, which comprised, roughly speaking, the present Uttar Pradesh with the eastern part of the Panjab, although sometimes Bihar and North Bengal were included in the division. In one record the village is specifically described as situated within the limits of Srāvasti. There is, however, difference of opinion as regards the location of this Srāvasti. Some scholars favour its identification with Setmahet on the borders of the Gonda and Bahraich Districts of the Uttar Pradesh while others suggest its location about the Bogra District in North Bengal. But usually the former identification is supported by scholars and the village of Takāri is located in Oudh.'
1 See Jolly, Hindy Law and Custom (trans. by B. K. Ghosh), pp. 196-97. Note that the hunted deer belonged to him who hit it first.
It is to be noted that the Vaijayanti explains bhūmichchhidr: asuncultivable land'. The expression is used in the Arthadastra of Kautilya exactly in the same sense. See Bhattacharya, Kamarupa-rasan-árali, p. 33, note.
* See Misra, op. cit., p. 51.
. Above, Vol. I, p. 336; Vol. III, pp. 348, 353 ; Vol. IX, p. 107; Ind. Ant., Vol. XVII, p. 118: Vol. XVI, pp. 204, 208.
Ind. Ant., Vol. XVII, p. 118. . Above, Vol. XIII, pp. 290 ff.; of. Ind. Ant., Vol. XLVIII, p. 208 ; Vol. LX, pp. 14# History of Bengal, Vol. I (Dacca University), p. 579, noto.