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No. 11.) GHUGRAHATI COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF SAMACHARA-DEVA. 79
(Lines 12-17.) Wherefore, the above-enumerated Elders and others who were skilled in Law, receiving this petition and calling to mind (the following slöka) :- The land which is full of pits and which is infested with wild beasts, is unprofitable to the king both as regards, rovenne and religious merit. That land, if made capable of being used, does bring revenue and merit to the king himself';-and having decided-Let it be given to this Brāhmaṇa'-and having recognised (ie, constituted) the Karanikas Naya-Naga, Keśava and others as the representatives of the public and having separated the three kulya sowing areas of land previously granted away by a copper-plate, (the aforesaid gentlemen) established the land that remained in Vyāghra-choraka by the issue of a copper-plate, after the demarcation of boundaries, as being (henceforward) in the possession of this Supratika Svåmi.
(Lines 18—20.) And the boundary indications are these :-- On the east, the goblin haunted Parkkatti tree; on the south, the Vidyadhara Jotikas; on the west, the corner of Chandravarmman's fort; on the north, the boundary of the village Gopendra-choraka.
(Lines 20-23.) And here apply the verses :-The grantor of land delights in heaven for sixty thousand years. The confiscator or one who approves of confiscation resides in hell for an equal number of years. Whoever takes away land granted by himself or others becomes worm in his own ordure and rots there along with his ancestors.
The year 14, the 2nd day of Kārttika.
Now, I propose to discuss the various issues raised by the inscription. The first point is the determination of the identity of Samachara-dēva.
Mr. Pargiter has pointed out that even if the grant were spurious, no forger would be so foolish as to date it in the reign of a king who never existed (J, A, 8. B., August, 1911, p. 499). We can adduce stronger proofs of his existence. I refer to the two gold coins, described as
Uncertain' on pp. 120 and 122 of the Catalogue of Voins, I. M. C., Vol. I, and illustrated as Nos. 11 and 13 on Plate XVI. They are both of gold (considerably alloyed with silver). One of them, of the Rājalilă type, was found near Muhammadpar in the Jessore district of Bengal along with a gold coin of Sasanka, and another gold coin of the light-weight "Imitation Gupta type, as well as silver coins of Chandra-Gupta, Skanda-Gupta and Kumāra-Gupta (Allan, Catalogue of Gupta Coins, Introd., Sec. 171, and J. A. S. B., 1852, Plate XII). The provenance of the other coin is unknown. It is of the common Archer Type of Gupta coins. The king's name occurs below the right arm of the king. A letter occurs between the feet of the king which Dr. Smith recognised as Oha. The reverse legend is recognised as Narendra-Vinata with some hesitation. Of the Räjalila coin, he read the name of the king on the obverse as Yamadha written in characters of the close of the sixth century A. D. and the reverse legend as Narendrāditya. Mr. Allan, in his Catalogue of Gupta Coins, attributes the Archer Type' coin to a period earlier than that of Saśääka (Intro., p. LXI), and, from the supplanting of the Garuda Standard of the Guptas by the Bull Standard on this coin, surmises that the coin was of a devout Saira. The
Mr. Pargiter explains kulavaras as referees or arbitrators. The word is composed of two sectioni, kula and våra; the former means the chief, the head; and the latter means the common populace, the public. Hence the meaning the chief men of the people'.
? As much land as could be sown by a kula (winnewing basket) full of seed. The term Kudad, equivalent to Bigba, the most current land-measure in Bengal, appears to be a corraption of the term kulyanapa. The name survives in the form of Kulavāya (qara), the name of the standard land-measure in the Sylhet District.
* Mr. Pargiter explains Jopikaan ennivalent to Bengali Jot, meaning cultivating tenure. This is hardly dotensible, though the word is a derivative for Jofa. Jot is most likely derived from the Sanskrit word gautaku, which means, one's exclusive private property, any property in general. The word Jofa is derived from the root Jutto come together. Jofa is still a very cominon word in Bengali, meaning union or coming together. The ter:n jopika, with the shortened form jofa, occurs also in the Khalimpar grant of Dharmaapillova (Rp. Ina, Vol. IV, 1. 249, text 11. 36.). Reference is to the corrected reading of the plato in Gaudalékhamala by Mr. A. K. Maitreys,
