Indian Antiquary Vol 51

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

Page 84

76
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(APRIL, 1922
remember in this connection the evidence of Manu36 and also what Kullûka says on Manu, VIII, 248 36. In the Insc. of Devendra Maharaja 37 we are told that on one side of the village there was the ditch demarcating the division or district (viayagartta) and there were also ditches on tyvo other sides. In the Insc. of Anantavarma38 too, a ditch forms the boundary of a village.
E. Sterile lands (unara)39. The expression ů vara på saņa in the Inse. of Govinda påla 40 seems to indicate the rocky nature of the soil. Khila of the Kamauli Insc. of Vaidyadava 41 should not be confused with usara. In very early times khila very possibly meant the land lying fallow in alternate years between two cultivable fields. In the period we are speaking of it means a tract of land which is cultivable but not cultivated. Compare e.g., the evidence of & lexicon of the eleventh century A.D. Says Yadavaprakasa in his Vaijayanti : khilam tvaprahatam sthanamusavatyûsurerinau 43.
F. Forest lands (aranya) 44. In the Vedic age these were no doubt regarded as "no man's land" and every householder exercised the right of Common or Estover :- and served the pur. pose of natural pastures, burial places, cremation grounds etc.46. With the rise of an autocracy during the Mauryan period forest tracts appear to have been regarded as State. property and were organised under a Superintendent of Forests 46. The injunction of Kautilya was that forest tracts should be granted to Brahmins for religious purposes 47. The Kamauli Inscription proves that such grants continued in later times as well.
G. Cultivable lands. According to the Dharmaśdstras a gift of cultivable lands conferred great spiritual benefit on the donor 48. The majority of inscriptions record grants of villages with cultivable fields. There are some grants which relate only to cultivable lands e.g., the Insc. of Vişnugopavarman 49, the Insc. of Dharasena 50 etc. The expressions generally used to imply such lands are knetra61, halakşetra 69 and kerisatah karsayata 63. A distinction seems to be drawn between kşetra and halaksetra, the former implying not only the land under cultivation but also the cultivable lands lying fallow temporarily to recover fertility, and the latter only the land under cultivation 54. That such classifications of cultivable lands were recognised, would be further apparent from what prevailed as late as the time of Akbar. That famous emperor classified such lands into (a) polaj, land continuously cultivated, (6) parauti, land left fallow for a year or two in order to recover its strength, (c) chachar, the land that has lain fallow for three or four years, and (d) banjar, land uncultivated for five years or more66.
36 IX, 289 : prákdrasya ca bhettdram parikhdnanca purakam duordnancaiva bhanktáram ksiprameva pravdaayat.
30 Taddgdnyudapdnani odpyah prasravandni ca simdsandhisu kūryydni devaidyatandni ca. Saya Kullaka : laddgaldpadirghikojalanirgamamdrga-devagrihani ca simard pesu grdmadvayasandhisthanesu karttavyani..... 37 Prac. Lek. III, 103 (Epi. Ind.. III, 131).
88 Ibid. III: 71. (Ep. Ind, 111, 19). 39 Mongoli Ine, line 40 (Gaudalekh, 154): Insc. of Jayachandra (Prac. Lek. I, 102) : Insc. of Mahabha vaguptadeva (Prac. Lek. I, 68) etc.
40 Prac. Lek. III, 10. 41 line 63 (Gaudalek, 135). 43 Land system in Vedic India. 43 Page 124.
44 Kamauli Inso., line 63. 45 Land system in Vedic India. 46 Arthaddatra, 49, 100. 47 Ibid, 49.
49 Cf. Vrihaspati : ph 11dk rintdm mdhim datud saujam dastydidlinin ydvalauryyakard lokedstvat margo mahfyake, 6, (Caloutta edition); cf. also Agni-purdna, CCXI. 34-35. 49 Prac. Lek. I, 78. 50 Prac. Lek. I, 24.
61 e.g., Prac. Lek. I, 124. 53 e.g., Prac. Lek. I, 78. 63 e.g., Prac. Lek. I, 339 : II, 37: II, 85 etc.
64 The distinction is further clear from the expression : ndjataldkakastre halasya bhd.ched kritya (i.., partitioning the cultivablo arena in the land lying about the royal tank) in the Ins. of Indravarman (Prac. Lek. III, 101). In Kautilya (page 340) kşetra is also used to indicato a wider region : tasydm himavat samuddntaramudicinam yojanana hasraparimdnatiryakca kravarti-katram tatrdanyo grdmyah pdta (parvala) audaibo bhaumasedmo Visama iti Videaah.
36 Ami-Akbari, Book II, aini, 6, quoted in V. Smith's Akbar, 374.