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128
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
or courts). Another most interesting fact of history obtained from these newly discovered copper-plate inscriptious, especially Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5, is that the vishayapatis appear to have been aided in their administrative work (samvyavahāra) by a Board of Advisers, which is found to have been constituted of four members, representing the various important interests of those days, vit. (1) the nagara-freshthin, the most wealthy man of the town, representing, perhaps, the rich urban population, (2) the sărthavaha (the chief merchant), representing, perhaps, the various trade-guilds, (3) the prathama-kulika (the chief artisan), representing, perhaps, the various artisan classes, and (4) the prathama-kayastha (the chief scribe), who may either have represented the Kayasthas as a class, or have been a Government official in the capacity of a Chief Secretary of the present day. Another class of local officers which finds mention in these plates from North Bengal, as also in the Faridpur plates, are the pustapālas (the keepers of records), who were, it seems, made aware of the title to all lands. As has been remarked at the outset, the Government would sanction land-sales only after these recordkeepers had, on receipt of application from the purchasers, determined the title to the land under proposal of transfer and sent in their report to Government. In one of these epigraphio records (Plate No. 3) other important bodies, presumably rural, are mentioned, such as the mahattaras, the ashta-kul-adhikaranas, and the grāmikas (for notes on these terms vide the foot-notes under the Translation), who were often consulted by Government in arranging landtransfer and also in inspecting (pratyavēkshya) the execution of the transaction. Some of the early Greek inscriptions also throw light upon the management of public lands and upon the constitutions of different cities. Sometimes these purchases were arranged and effected through these village bodies. Transactions of the nature of free donations to temples and charitable institutions are also referred to in some of the inscriptions of the early Chola rulers in the south.
There is evidence of the fact that there were different rates in different parts of old Bengal in the valuation of the price of unsettled, untilled khila (fallow) land. In the province of Pundravardhana such waste land was sold by Government at the rate of three dināras for each kulyarăpa, whereas in East Bengal (vide the Faridpar grants referred to above) it was sold at the rate of four such coins for the same area. Thus we see that tax-free (unassessed) waste lands were reclaimed at & small rate. Sach lands are referred to as being granted according to the custom called nivi-dharma or apradī-dharma, which perhaps meant that the donees had all the rights and enjoyments of such properties, except perhaps the right of destroying the perpetuity of the grants by making further gifts of the same. 'Trusts were perhaps carried on by means of the interest and income that accrued from the endowed land, which must remain beyond the scope of further transfer in future.
It is curious that many of the names of officers in the north-eastern Gupta province of Pandravardhana, as mentioued in these five plates, terminate in datta, rarman, pāla, mitra, nandin and dēva. The Gupta governors of the western provinces (Surashtra and 31ālwa) also had names ending in datta and varman. Whether both these eastern and the western officers were of common origin is a question which comes within the purview of ethnological science. The use of caste surnames, which appears to have been in vogue as early as the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., is a most interesting subject of discussion for students of ethnology; and my esteemed friend Mr. Rama Prasad Chanda, B.A., has dealt with this matter in his newly published treatise on the origin of Indo-Aryan peoples and institutions.
The most unhappy controversy that has so long been going on between Mr. Pargiter and Mr. RD. Banerji about the genuineness of the four Faridpur grants (mentioned before) will,
1 Vida Pandit H. Krishna Shastri'. paper on "Fiscal Administration under Early Cholas," pp. 223-235, in the Sir R. G. Bhandarkar Commemoration Volume, Poona, 1917.
Chanda, Indo-Aryan Race, Part I, p. 1899(Varendra Keren reb Society's publication, Rajshahi, 1916).
