Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 54

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MARCI, 1932
of Harsha of Kanauj. It does not however register the original grant, which was made, nou by him but by Bhûtivarman (=Mahabhûtavarman), his great-great-grandfather. Owing to some mishap, we are told, the plates were burnt, and the grant was renewed by Bhaskaravarian in favour of those to whom it was originally issued. The Brahman donees specified in this epigraph belong therefore to the time, not of Bhaskaravarman but of Bhûtivarman, not to the first half of the seventh century A.D. but to at least the beginning of the sixth. The second question that here engages our mind is to determine where the land granted was situated. According to the Mahamahopadhyâya it was somewhere in North Bengal, not far from Karnasuvarna, from where the grant was renewed. He however felt that all was not right as the land donated was far distant from the place where the plates were actually exhumed. But Mr. Ghosh in his article has adduced some cogent reasons to show that the land could be located in Pañchakhanda itself from where the plates came and where the Sampradayika Bråhmans of Sylhet are settled. Mr. Ghosh's identification seems more acceptable as the place granted is thus not far removed from where the plates were unearthed and as the Sampradayika Brâhmans can thus be naturally looked for as the descendants of the Brahmans who, from the Nidhanpur inscription, seem to have been settled there in a colony. We thus see that as early as 500 A.D., there was a settlement of Brahmans in the easternmost part of Bengal who bore name-endings which are now thought to be the characteristic surnames of the Bengal Kayastha community.
When we find a colony of Bråhmaņs established in a part of old Bengal, it is not to be expected that there were not further settlements of the same Brahman community in other parts of East India. And, as a matter of fact, we have found not one but two more inscriptions in this region which mention Brahmans with Kayastha surnames. Here, too, we are indebted to the same Mr. Ghosh for having first drawn our attention to them. One of these inscriptions is the copper-plate charter of Lokanatha? discovered in the Tippera district of Bengal. It registers grants of lands to a settlement of a hundred Brahmans in the forest district of Suvvunga. Here too we find that the names of the Brahman donees end in Kayastha padavis, such as Bhûti, Chandra, Dama, Dasa, Datta, Deva, Ghosha, Mitra, Nandin, Sarman and Soma. In line 29 the record is dated ...... dhike chatuśchatváriñsat-samvatsare Phálguna-mise ...... The letters dhike, with which these words commence, show that the date was at least 144, and not 44 as supposed by Mr. Radhagovinda Basak who has edited the grant. If we refer it to the Harsha era, as seems most likely from the palæography of the record, we obtain 750 A.D. as its English equivalent. It is thus clear that about the middle of the eighth century the same community of Brâhmans as are referred to in the Nidhanpur plates are found two centuries later in the Tippera grant of Lokanatha also. The second inscription which associates Kayastha surnames with Bråhmans is the copperplate charter of Subhakarat found at Neulpur in the Cuttack District of Orissa. Some of the name-endings of the Brahman grantees specified in this epigraplı are Bhúti, Chandra, Datta, Deva, Ghosha, Kars, Kunda, Naga, Rakshita, Sarman, and Vardhana. Now we know that Dr. Sylvain Lévi has assigned the date 795 A.D. to Subhakara from a Chinese source, so that we find that in the second half of the eighth century these Brahmans had migrated southward from Panchakhanda near Sylhet first to the Tippera district and after. wards to Orissa.
One thing that is worthy of note about this Neulpur charter is that three of the officers mentioned at its close bave names ending in Datta, namely, Samudra-Datta, Brahma-Datta, and Eda Datta. Another noteworthy thing about it and other records of Subhakara's family is that all its male members bear names terminating in Kara; and, as if to leave no doubt on this point, we have two inscriptions 10 of these rulers where their family has actually been called Kara, & surname which is found, not only among the Brahman donees of the Neulpu 1 En. Ind., Vo! XV. p. 306 ff. Ibid., Vol. XV. p. 3 ff.
Ibid., pp. 363-4. 10 JBORS., Vol II. p. 421 ff., Vol. V. p. 571 ff.