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No. 7.]
DAMODARPUR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTIONS.
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12 वदतां परदत्ताबा यो हरेत वसुन्धरां (राम) भूमि [दान ] 'संवधा [:] श्रीका भवन्ति ["]
18 fagrari f() fa पित्रि (c) भि [ : * ] सह पच्यते [ ॥ * ] ति [ ॥*]
TRANSLATION.
In the year 100 (and) 20 (and) 4 [=124], on the 7th day of Phalguna, while parama-daivata, parama-bhaṭṭaraka, mahārājādhiraja Sri-Kumara-gupta was the ruler of the earth, and uparika Chiratadatta was the receiver of favours from him (lit. was accepted by his Majesty's feet) in the province (bhukti) of Pundravardhana and kumaramatya Vētravarman, appointed by him (Chiratadatta), was, in the ever-prospering district (vishaya) of Kötivarsha, administering the government of the locality, in the company of Dhriti pala, the guild-president of the town, Bandhumitra, the merchant, Dhritimitra, the chief artisan, and Sambapala, the chief scribe, whereas the Brahmana Karpatika (thus) addressed (them)-"Deign to make a gift, according to nivi-dharma, of khila' land, as yet unploughed and not (already) given (to
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1 This portion in prose ought to have been inscribed before the imprecatory verse, quoted in 11. 12-13. 2 The word anuvahamana literally means "flowing on."
The Abhidhana-chintamani has "Deviköta Umävanam | Kötivarsham Bana-puram syach Chhōnitapuram cha tat," IV, 977. There is still a place in the Dinajpur District of North Bengal which is known as Bāņa-nagar or Bangarh, full of ancient ruins. The Vagu-Purana mentions Kötivarsha as a town in verse 209 (Chap. XXIII), thus:
"Tad apy aham bhavishyami dandi Mundisvarah prabhuh! Kötivarsham samäsädya nagaram devapujitam " So it appears that the town (adhishthana) of Kötivarsha and the vishaya of the same name are very old. There is frequent mention in later times of this vishaya in some of the epigraphic records of the Pala Kings of Bengal. There is mention of Kötivarsha also in the Brihat-samhita of Varähamihira (died 587 A.D.). The king of this place (Kotivarsha) is referred to in verse 11, chap. XI, of that treatise. We now find that this Kötivarsha formed a part of the Pundravardhana bhukti. In the topographical list of the Brihat-samhita the Pundra poople are mentioned as belonging to the eastern division of India, XIV, 7, 74-80. A king of this province (Pundradhi. pati) is also referred to in verse 58, chap. XI.
The Board of Advisers which seems to have helped the Vishayapati in carrying on the state affairs was constituted of four members, probably of a representative kind, of which the nagara-freshthin was one. He had probably to represent the various guilds or corporations in the town or the rich urban population. In later days freshthip came to mean "a banker."
The Sarthavaha may have been in the Council the representative of the merchants of the vishaya.
It is not known exactly who were represented by the kulika. This word is shown as an alternative reading for kulaka in the lexicon of Amara, viz. "Kulakah syat kula-freshthi"-II, 10, 5. The commentator Bhanuji Dikshita explains the words kulaka and kula-sreshthin to mean the foremost person in a company of artisans. He remarks thus-" Dee kärusamghë mukhyasya." Modini has the word kulika in the same sense of kula-sattama (v. 7 in Ka-trika).
7 What we have as jyeshtha-kayastha in the Faridpur grants B and C and in the Khalimpur plate of Dharmapala (p. 16 of Gauḍalēkhamālā) is here called prathama-kayastha (the chief scribe, who may have acted as Chief Secretary to the Administrative Board). Mr. Pargiter's translation of the word "jyeshtha" as "oldest " seems to be wrong. The adhikarana (administrative board) of the vishaya was formed with the vishayapati na head, having with him the four particular members to help him in the administrative work (samvyavahāra). Cf. Mr. Pargitor's remarks, Indian Antiquary, 1910, p. 211.
- Niridharmena-The word niei is a synonym for paripapa and muladhana (i.e. the capital or the principal in the matter of sale and purchase): cf. Amarakota, III, 3, 212, and Hemachandra, II, 534 (mula-dravya). These words mean the fixed capital out of the interest on which an expense is to be met. Hence to make a gift of land or money according to nividharma is to give it on condition that the endowment is to be maintained as perpetual. The term nivi is found used in many other records of the Gupta period, viz. in akshaya-nivi (Fleet, C. I. I., Vol. III, No. 12, 1. 26, and No. 62, dated in 131 G.E.) and in sividharmma-kahaya, 1. 8 of the Dhänäidaha plate discussed above. It appears that in the case of akshaya-nivi or nividharma the grantee could not destroy the principal, land or money, but had to make use of the income accruing from it. In some cases the former grantees reversed this process and transferred the gift to later grantees, as in the Dhänäidaha grant.
The words khila and aprahata are synonyms, according to Amara, II, 10, 5, and Halayudha, 2, 3, meanin "untilled land" (waste, fallow land).
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