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250
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1890.
impossible, to decipher the whole of the contents of the grant, if we were not already in possession of several other nearly identical versions. By rare good luck, however, the only really important parts of it, all names and dates with the only exception of one, - bave remained sufficiently uninjured to be fairly distinguishable,
The date is given both in words and figures, and states that the grant was made on Friday (sukra-diné), the fifteenth or full-moon day of the month Karttika, in the year 1131 of the Vikrama era. This, as calculated for me by Prof. Kielhorn, corresponds to Friday, the 6th November 1131 A. D.; and the year of the date, 1188, is, as usual, an expired Vikrama year. It is of importance, as proving that Gôvindachandra was still reigning in the year 1131 A. D. ; his latest date, hitherto known, was 1128 A. D. (S. 1185), and his earliest date is 1104 A. D. (S. 1161).
The grant was made at Benares; for, though the city is not mentioned, one of its ghats, Adikesava, is named as the spot where it was made. The donee was the Brâhman Labadaśarman, a son of Dahada, grandson of Chalahana and great-grandson of Svâmin. He belorged to the gôtra of Garga, and had the five pravaras of Garga, Angiras, Visvâmitra, Jamadagni and Vrihaspati.
The grant consisted in a certain portion of land, belonging to the village of Dosahali. This name, forcunately, is perfectly distinct; but the name of the district (pattala) in which it was situated is probably hopelessly injured. The only point certain about it is that it consisted of five aksharas. The village Dosahali has been identified for me by Mr. Jackson as the modern Dasault, which lies about two miles south of Lalauli, and six miles south of Rên, close
to the river Jamna. It is described, in the grant, by the term haladagángé (see below). The meaning of this term puzzles me; and very possibly it is not correctly read, though the letters seem fairly enough to be what I read them. As read, however, I take the word to mean "in that portion (ange) (of the village) which contains (ga) water (da for uda) and arable land (hala)." I would translate the passage referred to thus: “In the above-written village, in that portion of it which contains water and arable land, 10 ploughs (hala) of fertile land (sakvabhúmi), with its water and soil, with its iron and salt, &c., is given by me this day," and so forth. The quantity of land, granted to Lahada, in the village of Dosahalí, is stated to have been hala 10, or seventy ploughs.' Hala would seem to be here used as a measure of land, but I do not know how much land it would exactly indicate. About the numeral figures, I am not quite certain.
The name of the district it is impossible to identify. Mr. Jackson suggests that it may be Argal, which is about sixteen miles off, in a straight line, lying in a north-westerly direction in the Kôrâ Pargana of the Fathpur District. He writes that "it seems most probable that that place, as well as the rest of the Fathpur District, formed at the time part of the dominions of the Rajâs of Argal, who were then powerful tributaries of Kananj. The family still survives at Argal, but in the lowest degree of poverty. The family trees of this family shews 34 generations between the time of a Raja Jay, Pål (also called Ajay Chand) of Kananj, whose daughter Raja Sring-rikh of Argal married, and that of the Rahtôr Râja Jay Chand of Kanauj. It seems that the Argal Rajâs must have been semi-independent during this period; at any rate they were able to make large grants of lands to members of other friendly Rajput clans. Raja Ratan Singh of Argal shared the defeat of Jay Chand by Shihabu-d-din Ghôrî, but the family continued to be of note until Raja Hari Baran Deo took the wrong side in the revolt of Sher Shah against Humâyûn. Their fort was destroyed, and all semblance of independence taken away after the defeat at Kalpi about 1560 A. D. by one of Akbar's commanders."
1 See in particular other grants of this dynasty published by Prof. Kielhorn, ante, Vol. XV. p. 6 ff., and Vol. XVIII. pp. 9 ff., 129 k.; also three granta of Govindachandradêve himself, published by Dr. Führer in the Jour. As. Soc. Beng. Vol. LVI. p. 106 ff., where references to other published grants will be found, on page 107.
: Compare the word dagargala from da = uda, ga, and argala in Monier-Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary. * Seu Mr. F. S. Growse's notes on the Fathpur District, in Jour. 48. Soc. Beng. Vol. LIV. p. 157.
