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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XXVI.
With reference to orthography, attention may be drawn to the use of the avagraha. In some cases like pri(pri)ya-satyo='cidūra- 11. 9-10, its use is normal, but in two cases it has been used when a preceding à has been coalesced with a succeeding a ; cf. Bhūtāmvilik-a'bhidhānaI. 1 and sāratay=ā'sakrid, 1. 16.
The language of the charter is ornate Sanskrit. Te writer Jhöjjha, who was & son of Madhava, has introduced some new similes and metaphors, which to some extent relieve the monotony which cannot but be felt by a reader of the present series of charters. This game writer has composed Charter F of the present series issued in Gupta Samvat 596, and the Morbi plate of Jāika issued in Gupta Samvat 585. Jhöjjha obviously seems to have lived to a ripe old age.
The present charter records a village-grant made by Mahäsämantă dhipati Agguka III of the main Saindhava house, who was a son of king Chamundarāja and grandson of Jäika I. We have already discussed the circumstances, which make it very probable that Agguka III represented the senior of the two lines founded by the two sons of Jäika I (ante, pp. 195-196). We may only add here that the title of Agguka III Mahāsāmantadhipati is more exalted than that of his cousin Rāņaka of Charter D, which is merely Samantādhipati.
The date of the present grant is given in words in its penultimate verse, which states that it was made on a new moon day when five hundred and sixty-seven autumns had elapsed according to the Gupta era. As the month of the new moon is not given, the precise date of the grant cannot be found; it must have been issued sometime in A.D. 886-7.
The donees of this grant were two brothers, Rudra and Sägara, song of Guhēs vara, who were Yajurvēdin Brāhmaṇas of Vatsa götra residing at Góműtrikā situated in the district of Kāryāyātakachchha. The grant was given to the donees not for their own individual use, but for being utilised for the purpose of the local Brāhmaṇa assembly, of which they were probably trustees or leading members ; cf. brahma-samsad-upabhögyatayai, 1.25. The precise purpose of the grant is not stated; it is however probable that the Brāhmaṇas of Gömūtrikā, which appears to have been a holy place, may have been maintaining some educational institutes or temples or both, and the gent may have been intended to meet the expenses in that connection.
The village granted was Harishēņa paka, situated in the district of Svarapamañjari. Its boundaries not being given, it cannot be identified with certainty ; but it is probably the same as the modern village Hariāsana, situated in Nawanagar state as has been suggested to me by the Dewansaheb of Porbandar after a careful enquiry. I am unable to identify the village Gomūtrikā from which the donee hailed or the district of Kāryāyātakachchha, in which it was situated.
In 1. 23 of the present charter there are a large number of fiscal terms mentioned in connection with the revenues of the village granted, the purport of which is difficult to make out. It would appear that some of them like vaitanki and chingolā are Sanskritised forms of Präkrit words. They are not to be met with either in Sanskrit or Präkrit dictionaries. Bhāga-bhôga-kara and da'āparādha-danda are usual expressions in land grants and require to comment. Dāni in old Gujarati denoted a customs officer; so sarvoa-prīt-abhyāgāmi-dānyu would probably denote octroi duties on articles imported. Potra means a boat, and so potrā may lenote the tax on articles imported in boats. Märgaka might denote some levy realised from persons who had got back their lost articles, or it may be a levy on goods collected on the roadside (before they entered a city), as suggested to me by Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra.
