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No. 40] NAGARI PLATES OF ANANGABHIMA III ; SAKA 1151 AND 1152
245
3(a). In the same year, meaning Saka 1152, while the king was taking a bath in the Mahānadi on the occasion of a lunar eclipse on Thursday, Märgasirsha sudi 15 (i.e., on the 21st November 1230 A.C.), he granted eighteen vätis of land in the said Parapagrăma to a Brāhmaṇa named Dikshita Rudrapāņiśarman. The grant was made in connection with other grants of land made by the king according to the recommendations of Brihaspati. The donee Rudrapāņisarman belonged to the Bhäradvāja götra.
The area of 18 vāțis of land is referred to here as a gö-charman. Originally go-charman may have indicated that area of land which could be covered by the hides of cows slaughtered in a sacrifice and which was granted to the priests as sacrificial fee. But the expression is differently interpreted by later authorities. According to Nilakantha's commentary on the Mahabharata,' it indicated & piece of land large enough to be encompassed by straps of leather from a single cow's hide. The Parāśara-samhita and Brihaspati-sanhita: appear to suggest that the go-charman was that area of land where one thousand cows could freely graze in the company of a hundred bulls. According to the Vishnu-samhitā, the area of land, sufficient to maintain a person for a whole year with its produce, was called a go-charman. There is a more specific determination of the area of the gocharman in the Samhitās of Sätätapa and Brihaspati, according to which it was ten times a nivartana which was the area of 300 x 300 square cubits (about 44 acres). Unfortunately the area of the nivartana also is not the same with different writers. Even according to a variant reading? of Bțihaspati's text referred to above, the nivartana, regarded as one-tenth of the yo-charman, was the area of 210 x 210 square cubits (about 24 acres). Bhāskarāchārya's Lilāvatis speaks of the nivartana as 200 x 200 square cubits in area (about 2 acras). Elsewhere we have pointed out that the nivartana is 240 x 240 square cubits (about 3 acres) according to the Kautiliya-Arthaśāstra (II, 20), but only 120 x 120 square cubits (about acre) according to its commentator. All these differences were mainly due to the varying length of the cubit and the measuring rod, of which there were no recognised standards. But the very basis of the measurement of the go-charman was in many parts of the country apparently vague and uncertain. Since 18 vāļis of land is quite a large area, the go-charman, mentioned in our record as an equivalent to that area, seems to be that recognised by such authorities as Parāśara referred to above. It may be pointed out that Brihaspati, who supports Parāśara in one passage, is actually mentioned in our record in this connection.
1 Vangavast ed., I, 30, 23: Vadhri ēka-tantuk, charma-rajju..... ekēna gö-charmanā kritaya rajjvá akranlabhūrgo-charma-matra.
2 Caloutta ed., XII, 43: gavan satam 8-aika-vrishani yatra tish thaty=a-yantrilam tal-ksharan dasa-guritan 96=charma parikirttitam |
• Vangavāsf ed., verse 9 : Sa-usishaın 93-sahasram tu yatra tishthaty=a-tandritam bala-vatsa-prasītānām tad go-charma iti amritam
* Vangavast ed., V, 179: Eko=aniyad yad=utpannań narah samvatsaram phalam | Gö-charma-matra så kshauri stökā vā yadi va bahu |
5 Vangaväsi ed. (naviráati-samihitah): daca-hastēna dandena trimsad-dandan nivarlanam | daáa tany= eva go-charma dattvå svargë mahiyate ||
• Loc. cit., verse 8: daba-hastëna dandena trimsad-danda nivartanam dala tany=eva vislāro go-charm=aitan= mahaphalam!
Cf. Vijñānēsvara's commentary on the Yajravalkya-smriti, I, 210: sapta-hastëna dandena trimáad-dandair mivarlanam. See also Sabdakalpadruma-parisishta, p. 160. The Pranatoshaxl-tantra, Vasumatl ed., p. 106, ascribes the verse to the Svarðdaya-fikákara.
Calcutta ed., I., 6:..... tatha karanan dasakēna vambah nivarlanan vimsati-vamsa-sankhyaib kahdlram chaturbhis cha bhujair=nibaddham
Successors of the Satavahanas, p. 330 note. 10 Soo my paper on the Kulyavápa, sto., in the Bharula-kaumudi, Part II, pp. 043.48.
