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318
[VOL. XVII.
resembling the Kumudasñtra (or snu) or the Palamaka of our record and I refrain from offering a conjecture regarding their identity.
In connection with these place-rames, it is interesting to note, that our document supplies one or two territorial terms, which appear to be new. The term mandala, as I have remarked alove, is here used, as in the grant of Amma II, in the sense of desa, of which rishaya was a subdivision. The word 'vithi', which generally signifies a market, road-way or the like, appears to have been used, in this charter, in the sense of a division smaller than vishaya. Similarly the term 'naya seems to imply a like division. The use of these terms would show that bhukti was divided into mandalas which were subdivided into vishayas, the latter being again portioned into vithis or nayas. It is noteworthy that our document employs the term naya in the case of Rajagriha vishaya and vithi in the case of Gaya vishaya. The former occurs regularly after (1) Ajapura, (2) Pilipinka and (3) Achala, which lay in the district or vishaya of Rajagriha, while the latter term is to be found in connection with the district or vishaya of Gaya only. This would indicate that in the two vishayas, which were so contiguous to each other, there were, probably, different subdivisions made, apparently, for revenue purposes, Rajagriha being subdivided into nayas and Gaya into vithis. Thus, we can say that the villages Nandivanaka and Maniväṭaka lay in the subdivision or naya of Ajapura, Națika in the naya of Achala, all these falling within the Rajagriha vishaya. The village of Palamaka, on the other hand, which belonged to the district or vishaya of Gaya, lay in the subdivision of Kumandasütra, i.e., Kumudasutra-vithi.3
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
TEXT. Obverse.
Metres used: Sardilavikriḍitam in vv. 1, 7, 8, 13, 14, 30, 31, 32, 33; Praharshini in vv. 2, 26; Vamsastha in v. 3; Upajati in v. 4; Indravajra in v. 5; Aupachchhandasikam in v. 6; Arya in vv. 9, 11, 22, 23; Harini in v. 10; Kathōddhata in vv. 12, 15; Anushțubh in vv. 16, 17, 18, 19, 29; Vasantatilaka in vv. 20, 24, 25, 27, 28; Pushpitägra in v. 21; Sragdhara in v. 34.
1 'ओं स्वस्ति । सिङ्घार्थस्य परार्थसुस्थित 'मतेस्मन्मार्गम[भ्य]
2
सिद्धिमिद्धिमनुत्तरां भगवतस्तस्य प्रजासु क्रिया
यस्तैधातुकसत्वसिद्धिपदवी रत्युग्रवीर्योदया
निर्वृतिमाससाद सुगतर्वार्थभूमोजर:- [१०] सौभाग्यन्दध दतु चियापा
3
5
farar
स्वत
[*]
गोपालः पतिरभवसुन्धरायाः [*]
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, p. 16; cf. Fleet, C.I.I., Vol. III, p. 32, footnote 7.
It may be noted here that the term rithi is also used in the sense of a division in the Ghughrahati plates of Samacharadeva which have been edited by Mr. R. D. Banerji, in the August 1910 number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Mr Bhattasali, who is re-editing the grant for this journal, seems to take the word ir its nenal sense, but, in the light of this Nalanda document, his rendering cannot hold good.
The reading can also be s
Kxpressed by a symbol. Kiethorn has for.
