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No. 7]
EPIGRAPHIC NOTES
55
The word panga-panga has not been properly interpreted. B. L. Rice while translating the Hitnahebbāgilu plates admitted his inability to interpret the expression pang-ötköta. K. T. Telang while editing the Goa plates of Satyasraya Dhruvarāja Indravarman read sarvva-panguparihrita and translated the expression as 'free from all lame people', although Kielhorn later pointed out that the correct reading is panga and not pangu."
Mr. P. B. Desai offered several suggestions on the interpretation of this word. In a note published in the Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, he explained panga as 'form' or 'shape' and interpreted the passage Bhairavaḥ pānge Gadyāṇakāḥ occurring in the Panjim plates as 'Gadyanakas (i.e. coins of that name) of the Bhairava type', although an alternative suggestion offered was that pange may be a mistake for ponge derived from pon meaning 'gold'. But later he gave up the above interpretations of the word and offered the following suggestion: "The expression is not found in Sanskrit or Prakrit. It may, however, be connected with the Kannada pangu meaning 'obligation' or 'indebtedness'. This suggestion is supported by the context which shows that the ground for the collection of panga or fee was obligation. The word has passed into the Marathi language and is used in expressions like panga phedanem (to discharge the debt)."
The word panga-panga as found in the inscriptions referred to above is no doubt the same as Telugu pangamu recognised in Brown's Telugu-English Dictionary in the sense of 'a tax in the shape of one-fourth of the produce collected in olden times by the government on lands in the possession of gods and Brahmanas' (deva-Brāhmaṇa-vrittula mida pūrvapu sarkāruvāru tisikoně chaturth-amsam-ayina kappamu). It may be connected with Tamil pangu and Malayalam panka recognised in Wilson's Glossary in the sense of a share'. Dr. R. Narasimha Rao has drawn my attention to the use of the word in a large number of Telugu inscriptions of the medieval period.
Inscription No. 588 in the South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. VI, dated Saka 1189 (1267 A.D.), contains the passage aya-sumkkamu pamgga lekumdän-istimi, "we have made this grant with the exemption of aya-bulka and panga". No. 257 of Vol. X of the same work, dated Saka 1133 (1211 A.D.) has similarly i vrttiki paigāmu ledu, "there is no panga in respect of this gift land". No. 405 (Saka 1187-1265 A.D.), No. 422 (Saka 1191-1269 A.D.), Nos. 449 and 450 (Saka 1202-1280 A.D.), No. 488 (Saka 1221-1299 A.D.), No. 492 (Saka 1225-1303 A.D.), No. 499 (Saka 1233-1311 A.D.), No. 520 (Saka 1238-1316 A.D.), No. 527 (Saka 1241-1319 A.D.), No. 539 (of the time of Kakatiya Rudra) and No. 540 (of the time of Kakatiya Prataparudra) of the same volume have the following passages respectively: (1) dunnuvärikim baṁggamu lēdu (the cultivators of this land are exempted from panga), (2) evvaru dunninānu paṁga-tappu paṁga-sumkamu pannu kānika darisanamu ē-mēralavārūnu ēmim gona-lēdu (panga-tappu, panga-sulka, pannu, kānika and darsana are not levied from the cultivators anywhere), (3) pamgamu sarvva-mānyamu (a free holding which is panga, i.e. free from panga), (4) pamga (not pamggu as in the printed text) kānika mannana achamdr-arkkamugānu (we have permanently exempted it from panga and kanika), (5) i chēniki panga-tapu-sumkamu adigina-varu(vāru) paṁchcha-mahāpātakānaṁ baḍuduru (the collectors of pamga-tappu-sulka will be committing the five great sins), (6) pamgamu lēkuṁḍānuṁ sarvva-mānyamugānu mānitimi (no panga will be levied by us on the free-holding), (7) ellanan fikini upakshiti pangamu puți māḍalu kānika darisanamu mamnimstimi (we exempt from upakshiti, painga, pulti, mādalu, kānika and darsana for ever), (8) pamga-sarvva-mānyamu... ichiri (made
Ep. Carn., Vol. IV, translation, p 85. We also failed to explain the expression while discussing the inscription in the Successors of the Satavahanas, p. 266.
JBBRAS, op. cit., pp. 365-66; above, Vol. VI, p. 13, note 3.
QJMS, loc. cit.
Above, Vol XXX, p 75; cf. also ibid., Vol. XXXI, p. 236, note 2.
