North Indian Inscriptions

POLITICAL HISTORY

appointed Uparika or Governor thereof by the Emperor himself. The Governor, in his turn, appointed Kumārāmātya Vētravarman to administer the court of the town along with four other officials, namely, the Nagara-śrēshṭhin Dhṛitipāla, the Sārthavāha Bandhumitra, the Prathama-Kulika Dhṛitimitra and the Prathama-Kāyastha Śāmbapāla. It is to this town kachēri that a Brāhmaṇa called Karpaṭika applied for one kulyavāpa, that is, a strip of land where one kulya of seed could be sown, land, again, which could be held in perpetuity according to the nīvi law, i.e., in lieu of the sum given for it, namely, three dīnāras. The land was bought for the purpose of the performance of his Agnihōtra rites. It was waste land, unploughed and not yielding (any produce). The record keepers (Pustapālas) Risidatta, Jayanandin and Vibhudatta went into the case and fixed upon some land north-west of Ḍōṅgā, which was thus sold to the Brāhmaṇa. The second plate, which is dated Gupta year 128, mentions exactly the same officials from the Uparika down to the Pustapālas.

        Unfortunately, the name of the Brāhmaṇa who made an application for the land is not decipherable. What seems preserved here is that he wanted and secured for the performance of his pañcha-mahāyajñas, two drōṇas of land in the western quarter in a waterless region (airāvata), devoid of all cattle, but the land was furnished with drinking-places (pānaka) and water-drawing wheels (araghaṭṭa).

       Another important plate¹ of this date, namely, of Gupta year 128, is the one found at Baigrām in the Bogra District, West Bengal. It is doubtless of the time of Kumāragupta though the name of the emperor is not mentioned. Nor is the name of the Uparika or Provincial Governor specified. The charter commences with the orders, issued by the Kumārāmātya Kulavṛiddhi of Pañchanagarī and the Adhikaraṇa or Court of the District (vishaya) called thereafter, to the village officials, of Trivṛitā and Śrīgōhālī connected with Vāyigrāma (Baigrām). Here Kulavṛiddhi is spoken of as meditating on the feet of the Bhaṭṭāraka, that is, the sovereign, who, in this case, must be Kumāragupta I. And it seems that Pañchanagarī was the name not only of the District but also of its headquarters. Bhōyila of Trivṛitā and Bhāskara of Śrīgōhālī, we are told, applied to this court for three kulyavāpas and two drōṇavāpas to help them to make an endowment to defray the expenses of flowers, perfumery, frankincense and so forth for daily worship in, and of occasional repairs to, the temple of Gōvindasvāmin, which was founded by their father Śivanandin. The land was granted on the receipt of six dīnāras and eight rūpakas. This is the value of three kulyavāpas and two drōṇas. The price of one kulyavāpa is expressly stated as two dīnāras; and one kulyavāpa, we know, was equivalent to eight drōṇas. It thus seems that in the Gupta period, one dīnāra was equivalent to sixteen rūpakas, just as one guinea was to sixteen rupees up till some time ago, when normal circumstances prevailed in India. Rūpaka has several meanings. One meaning is simply ‘a coin’, that is, any coin. In that sense occur such terms as suvarṇa-rūpaka and svarṇa-rūpaka, both in the Rājataraṅgiṇī and in the Kathāsarit-sāgara.² It is also used in the sense of ‘a silver coin’, corresponding to the Hindi Rupiyā and the English ‘Rupee’. An inscription originally found at Bijāpūr in the Gōḍwāṛ Division of the erstwhile Jodhpur State and dated 997 A.D., speaks of three different types of coins, rūpaka, viṁśōpaka and karsha while recording benefactions to a Jaina temple.³ Of what metal the viṁśōpaka was made is doubtful. But there can be no doubt as to rūpaka and karshaka being made of silver and copper respectively. It thus appears that in the Gupta period two types of coins were prevalent in Bengal, the gold dīnāra and the silver rūpaka.

       It is true that the three copper-plate inscriptions just adverted to are deeds of sale and register the purchase, by private individuals, of fallow and uncultivated land, belonging to the
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¹ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXI, pp. 81 ff.
² Car. Lect., 1921, p. 131.
³ Ep. Ind., Vol. X, p. 24, lines 26-27.