Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 17

FEBRUARY, 1919 ]
NIVI AND VINITA AS USED IN INDIAN EPIGRAPHS
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THE WORDS NIVİ AND VINITA AS USED IN INDIAN EPIGRAPHS.
BY RADHA GOVINDA BASAK, M.A. ; CALCUTTA. TN February last, ante, Vol. XLVII, pp. 50-56, Mr. K. P. Jayaswal has published a 1 very learned article under the heading " The Arthasastra Explains", -in which he has attempted to make clear with the help of Kautilya's Arthasastra, the meaning of some words used in some of the Indian epigraphs. Students of Indian Epigraphy will very gratefully accept the explanation he has offered for the words vracha and vachabhúmika (with some reservation with regard to the foot-note on p. 55) as used in the Asokan Edicts and for the word pranaya as used in the Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradâman's time. But I am afraid the explanations he has proposed for the term nivi as occurring in several old inscriptions and the term vinîta as used in Asoka's Rock Edict VI will not meet with the approval of scholars.
Let us take up the word nivi first. Mr. Jayaswal has very likely kept in view the meaning vastra-bandhanan, as offered to this word by lexicographers, when he proposes that the word "nivi" of the inscriptions is to be translated as "document" or "despatch " and “akshaya-nivi" as "permanent document", and the reason he sets forth for the acceptance of such an explanation is that the meaning "despatch " is to be derived from the physical feature,—"the string," which was tied round the despatch or official returns in ancient days. In support of this view he refers his readers to some passages in the Arthasústra (pp. 61, 62 and 64). I suppose that the most important meaning of the word nivi, as given in Amara's and Hemachandra's lexicons, that would suit the passages in the inscriptions and in thọ Arthasastra, has escaped the notice of Mr. Jayaswal, otherwise he would never have proposed such an unsuitable meaning for the word. In Amara Book II, 9,80 we find that the word nivi has been putas a synonym for paripana and muladhana (i.e. the capital or principal in sale and purchase and such other transactions) ["Kraya-vikray. adi-ryavahare yanmûla-dhanavn tasya"-Bhattojidikshita]. So has Hemachandra (II. 534) put múladravya as a synonym for nivi. It may be seen that wherever the word nibi occurs in Indian inscriptions (e g. in l. 1 of Ushavadâta's Nasik Çave Inscription, Epi. Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 82, in l. 26 of the Bihar Stone Pillar Inscription of Skandagupta, Fleet C.I.I.. Vol. III. No. 12, p. 50; and in l. 3 of the Sanchi Stone Inscription, ibid, No. 62, p. 261), it is to be explained as "the fixed capital out of the interest (vriddhi) on which a particular expense is to be met." In the passage in the Nâsik Inscription, we find that Ushavadata granted 3,000 karsha paņas as perpetual endowment (akshayanivi kâhâ pana-sahasrâni trini) which were in vested in two parts, viz. in 2,000 and 1,000 in two weavers' guilds, and it has been explicitly mentioned there that these kârshâ panas are not to be repaid (apadidâtavā), their interest only to be enjoyed (vadhi-bnôja). In the passage in the Sanchi Stone Inscription also, it is found that upasika Haris vamini made a grant of 12 dinaras as akshaya-nivi to the Sangha) in the great monastery of Kakanada boța (akshaya nivî datta dinârâ dvadasa), and there also it is clearly pointed out that a bhikshu is to be fed daily out of the interest that accrues from this endowment (éshani dindranan yd vriddhir=upaja. yatê taya divasê divasê saingha-madhya-pravishtaka = bhikshur-êkah bhojayitavyah). In the passage again in the Bihar Inscription of Skandagupta we read of the grant of a grama. kshêttra (village-field) as an akshaya-nivi (a permanent endowment). So I do not see how these passages in Indian Inscriptions can be explained at all by taking nívi to meap a
despatch" or a document." Moreover, the passages from the Arthasdstra referred to