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 95

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXIII cho grant of a free-holding as panga, i.e., exempted from paiga), (9) pařga-mānyamu (a free-holding which is panga, i.e. free from panga), (10) pangamu veftina padupāpālam badu-vāru (the colleotors of panga from the cultivators of this land will be committing all sins), and (11) pariga-mányamuigā vidiche (made the free-holding panga, i.e. free from panga). The passage panggamu lēdu (exempted from panga) also occurs in Inscription No. 7 from Ongole in the Inscriptions of the Nellore District, Vol. II.
In these records panga or pangā, besides panga-tappu and panga-bulka, or panga-lappu-sulka in a single compound, is in some cases mentioned along with other levies called aya-bulka, pannu, kānika, darsana, upakshiti, putti and mādalu. In some cases, the word panga has been used as an adjective in the sense of free from panga'. The distinction between panga-tappu and pangafulka is not clear. While panga-bulka may be the same as panga explained above, panga-tappu may indicate interest or fine on arrears of panga.
Of the seven other items mentioned in the records quoted above, darsana is the same as Persian nazrāna, originally a gift or present from an inferior to a superior, a holy man or a prince. Both aya and bulka mean 'toll, tax, customs, etc., and the compound āya-bulka may have been used in the records in the sense of customs duties'. Wilson's Glossary recognises pannu as a Tamil word meaning tax, tribute, custom, rent'. It is also recognised in Brown's Telugu-English Dictionary in the sense of a tax, rent, duties'. Kānika seems to be the same as Kannada kāņikekāne or kāņike-kappa recognised by Wilson in the sense of 'a present from an inferior to a superior, a subscription, a donation'. Brown recognises Telugu kānika or kānuka in the same sense. Putti reminds us of Telugu puţti-dosiļļu recognised by Wilson in the sense of a fee of two handfuls from each putfi of grain paid to the village servants'. Madalu similarly reminds us of what Wilson says under māda: "a half pagoda ; whence it is applied to a rate of rent or payment of 50 per cent." I am not sure about the real meaning of upakshiti.
The Hițnahebbāgilu plates of Kadamba Mļigēsavarman uses the expression parihsita-pangotkota (exempted from panga and utkota), in which utköta is another allied fiscal term like panga. The Sanskritic form utkoța is not found in the lexicons; but its Prakrit form ukkoda, as used in the Jain Vyavahārasutra, has been recognised by H. T. Seth in his Päiasaddamahannaro in the sense of thins to be offered to the rājakula (the king, royal officers and members of the royal family and presents made to the king and others. The same lexicon recognises ukkoda, which appears to be a feminine form of the same word, as found in works like the Dafināmamālā, Praúnavyākaranasútra and Vipäka śruta, in the allied sense of 'bribe'.
While the form pānga may be a word derived from pangu in the same sense, pangā may be a wrong spelling of panga. The expression sarva-panga-parihita (exempted from all the pangas) used in some cases would suggest that panga often indicated a levy in general and that there were various kinds of it. The use of expressions like panga-bulka and panga-tappu (ct. aloo pangatappu-sulka) in the same context along with other taxes seems to suggest that panga was sometimes also used to indicate a particular group of levies,