Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 89

No. 7-EPIGRAPHIC NOTES
D. C. SIECAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 24.2.1958)
9. Creation of Rent-tree Holdings There are some copper-plate charters' which record the sale of Government land to an applicant paying the usual price and the Government's acceptance of his proposal to create a rent-free holding out of the purchased land in favour of Brāhmaṇas or religious institutions. 'In such a transaction, it was believed, according to an ancient Indian convention, that five-sixths of the religious merit for the creation of the revenue-free holding would go to the purchaser of the. land and one-sixth of it to the king of the country, whose government alone could create such & holding."
There is another kind of charters which, instead of speaking of the sale of the land that was created into a rent-free holding by the king in favour of Brāhmaṇas or religious institutions, merely state that the particular holding was created at the request of a certain officer or feudatory of the king or some other persons. In spite of the absence of any reference to sale in such records, some of them appear to be based on a transaction involving sale. Thus the Nalanda plate of Dēvapāla records a grant of five villages by the Pāla king to a Buddhist monastery at Nälanda at the request of Mahārāja Balaputradeva who was the lord of Suvarnadvipa (Sumatra) and was responsible for establishing the monastery. The five villages were apparently purchased by Bälaputradēva from Dēvapäla as otherwise the whole of the religous merit aceruing to the pious act of endowing the monastery with a rent-free holding for its maintenance would go to Dévapala and nothing at all to Balaputradeva. This was no doubt an undesirable position for the king of Sumatra. If he really purchased the villages, as he no doubt did, five-sixths of the merit would be his and only one-sixth would go to Dēvapāla according to the convention referred to above.
But as regards the land made a rent-free holding at the request of an officer or feudatory of the king, it was no doubt in many cases lying within his jāgir or fief or estate. In the case of land forming part of jāgirs which royal officers of ancient India enjoyed temporarily,' their occupants lost the rent of the land in question so long as they were in their possession. But the king's
Select Inscriptions, pp. 337 ff., 342 ff., 346 ff., 350 ff., 359 ff.
*Cf. ibid. p. 844, text line 13; p. 348, text line 16; p. 352, text lino 13; p. 362, text line 11. See also Manu. amriti, VIII, 304; Vishnusmriti, III, 13-14. The same idea is also referred to in other records like the Damodarpur plates, No. 3, lino 7 (above, Vol. XV. p. 136), and No. 5, line 12 (op. cit., p. 143). The texts of most of the inscriptions have often been misunderstood. Cf. Select Inscriptions, p. 352, noto 5.
Cf. Select Inscriptions, pp. 331, 375, 421, sto.. It may be pointed out that the foudstory's name was men. tioned in royal charters in this fashion only when he was regarded as of some importance. When he grow inoro powerful, he issued charters himself with obe permission of his master (cf. above, Vol. XXXII, pp. 139 ff.). With further growth in his power, his charters wero, issued without reference to his master's permission but without eonowaliny his subordinato position or indicating it somewhat vaguely (cf. ibid., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 201, 206, 332; Vol. XXX, p. 139; etc.). When still more powerfull, he issued his grants without any reference to his master and endowing himself with a combination of subordinate and imperial titles which could in some cases be so interpreted as to indicate either his subordinate position or independent status (cf. ibid. Vol. XXVII, p. 329; Vol. XXVIII, pp. 109, 284; Vol. XXIX, p. 186). The next stage of course is represented by his charters insued as a full-fledged independent ruler.
The sale of land was generally represented in sacion India as a gift. See above, Vol. XXVIII, p. 48, note? Bhandarkar's List. No. 1613. Cf. R. D. Banerji. Baadlar lide, Vol. I, B.8. 1330, p. 210. Cf. Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, Vol. I, p. 177.
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