North Indian Inscriptions

SOCIAL HISTORY

the significance of this suffix? Is it an integral part of the proper names, and not therefore separable from them? Inscription (4) militates against this supposition. For the grantee therein mentioned is also the grantee of inscription (3), namely, Nārāyaṇa, son of Kēśava. In the latter, the suffix Mitra is attached to the names of both, but is conspicuous by its absence in the former. Obviously, it has to be understood as a Śarman in the sense of clan affix. This may be seen also from the fact that it has been assigned to two gōtras, namely, Śārkkarāksha and Gāṅgyāyana in Pravarādhyāya. That this statement of the work is correct may be seen from the fact that the Brāhmaṇa grantees, mentioned above as Mitras, actually belonged to the Śārkkarākshi gōtra.

       The Pravarādhyāya, again, mentions Trāta as another Śarman and assigns to it two gōtras, namely, Bhāradvāja and Ātrēya. Let us see whether the existence of this Śarman with any one of the gōtras attached to it borne out by any epigraphic evidence. The Vāvaḍiyā-Jōgia plates of Dhruvasēna I speak of the grantees thus:

Anandapura-vāstavya-brāhmaṇa-Skandatrāta-Guhatrātābhyāṁ Bhāradvāja-sagōtrābhyāṁ Chhandōga-sabrahmachāribhyāṁ, etc., etc.¹

       The name Ānandapura shows that the donees here also were Nāgar, above all, Vaḍnagar, Brāhmaṇas. The names of both end in Trāta which must be the clan name. And as required by this clan, both belong to the Bhāradvāja gōtra. This agrees perfectly with the information contained in the Pravarādhyāya about this Śarman and its gōtra.

       The above evidence clearly shows that the contention of the Pravarādhyāya, that the gōtras, Śarmans, etc., specified therein as being in existence until Vikrama year 1283, is thoroughly borne out by the plates of the Maitraka rulers of Valabhī, that is, from circa 500 to circa 770 A.D., so far as the Nāgar Brāhmaṇas are concerned. The question arises: are they still prevalent amongst them? The great Nāgar scholar, Vallabhji Haridatta Acharya, assured us in 1910 that they were in full swing up till that year and that even the Śarmans were not forgotten as, at the time of performing religious ceremonies, it was customary to say Bhagvānlāl-Trāta for mere Bhagvānlāl, Maṇiśaṁkar-Gupta for mere Maṇiśaṁkar and so forth. Here, at any rate, Trāta and Gupta are not mere suffixes, for we have them already in lāl of Bhagvanlāl and śaṁkara of Maṇiśaṁkara. The conclusion is not unreasonable that their Śarmans originally represented the families or clans that were incorporated in the Nāgar race.

       Let us proceed one step further. Of the thirteen Śarmans of the Nāgar Brāhmaṇas mentioned above, no less than ten are found as family names among the Kāyasthas of Bengal, such as Datta, Gupta, Nandi, Ghōsh, Śarma, Dās, Barmā, Bhūt, Mitra and Dēb. How can this concurrence of clan names or surnames in two such different parts of India be explained? When we first studied this question in 1909, we could only suspect that this pointed to some racial identity or affinity between the two communities. The chain of evidence was then far from satisfactory, because no Bengali Kāyastha surnames were at all traceable anywhere in ancient Bengal of the Valabhī period, and, above all, among the Brāhmaṇas of Bengal and Orissa. Epigraphy has since then made such considerable progress that we are now in a position to say something definite on the matter. A careful study of the inscriptions shows that the Kāyastha surnames were in existence in Bengal long before the Muhammadan invasion. One such group of inscriptions was found in the Faridpur District of Bengal,² and pertaining to the sixth century A.D. But perhaps the earliest of these are the five celebrated copper-plate charters of the Gupta kings found at Dāmōdarpur³ in the Dinajpur District of West Bengal. The earliest of these, again, is dated Gupta year 124=442 A.D., and the latest, Gupta year 241=
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¹ Vienna Ori. Jour., Vol. VII, p. 299.
² Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIX, pp. 193-216; Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, pp. 76-77.
³ Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, pp. 113 ff.