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THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS
about (their) health, inform the husbandmen of the village Chaṇḍaka who are inferior Ryots
and are presided over by the Brāhmaṇas, as follows:
(Lines 3-6) The village headman Nābhaka, has petitioned to us: ‘for the augmentation
of (my) parents’ and my own spiritual merit, I am desirious of settling down certain venerable
Brāhmaṇas. Deign ye, therefore, to do me the favour of (granting) waste land, excluded from
revenue and not yielding (anything), according to the rule of sale customary in the village,
after accepting gold from me.â
(Lines 6-11) “Whereas it has been determined by the record-keeper Patradāsa that ‘this
is a case (falling) under the rule of sale and that (land) may be granted to him for the
augmentation of the good fortune of the venerable Paramabhaṭṭāraka Mahārāja, in the receipt
of two dīnāras from the hands of Nābhaka and on (the same) being credited (to the treasury)
by Sthāṇavila and Kapila-Śrībhadra, one kulyavāpa of waste land, (excluded) from revenue
(and) not yielding (anything), has been assigned to him, as determined by the determination
of that same Patradāsa, (somewhere) on the south, west and east of the boundary of Satya on
the north side of the Vāyi village. And this should be allotted to Nābhaka after being
inspected by the husbandmen under the (Ashṭakula) Board headed by Mahattara, after
severing it with eight (-cubit) by nine (-cubit) nalas1 and without detriment to (their) culti-
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Chapter VII with reference to the head of the village, who had the right to enjoy several privileges, e.g., to use
for himself the king’s dues received from the villagers” (Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, p. 137 and note 3). It is, however,
forgotten that grāmika occurs not only in line 3 but also in line 4 and that in both cases it should be taken in the
same sense. But, whereas, in line 3 the word is taken by Basak to signify ‘the village-head,’ in line 4 it is taken by
him in the sense of ‘of this village’. Besides, as has just been pointed out, mahattara apparently denotes the Head
of the village community. Grāmika had thus better be taken in the sense of ‘a village headman,’ so as to suit both
the places where it occurs.
1 Nala ordinarily means ‘a reed,’ but here it denotes the measuring reed. The expression ashṭaka-navaka-nalā
bhyām occurs also in line 18 of Baigram Copper-Plate Inscription (Ep. Ind. Vol. XXI, pp. 81 ff.). The same expression is found in the Faridpur plates (Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIX, pp. 200 ff.), but here nala has been used in the
singular. In regard to the measurement of land in East Bengal, F. E. Pargiter makes the following pertinent
remarks: “The commonest land-measure in the eastern districts of Bengal has been the kāṇi, though it is now being
superseded by the standard Government bighā. It is not a square, but an oblong. Its dimensions vary in different
localities, its measurements being 24X20 reeds or 24X16, or 12X10. (Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIX, p. 215)”. It seems
that this land-measure in the Gupta period was 9X8, that is to say, one side of it was a Nala nine cubits in length
and the other a Nala eight cubits in breadth. The Nala measure varied in different localities and at different
periods in Bengal. But it was always measured in terms of hasta. Thus the Tarpaṇadīghi plate of Lakshmaṇasēna
has tatratya-dēśa-vyavahāra-nalēna (Inscrs. of Bengal, Vol. III p. 102, line 36) and the Gōvindapur plate of the same
ferent districts had Nalas of different measure in the Sēna period and that in the Vardhamāna bhukti the Nala measured 56 hastas or cubits. There was also an attempt in the Sēna period to have a standard Nala. Thus, we find
the expression Vṛishabhaśaṅkara-nala in the Sēna records (ibid., p. 74, line 45; p. 87, lines 36—37), where Vṛisha-bhaśaṅkara is doubtless the biruda of Vijayasēna. It is true that in the Sēna epoch the land was measured by the
linear Nala but prior to the time of the Pālas it was by the oblong Nala, as we have seen above. But this oblong
Nala was 9 hastas long and 8 hastas broad. That after ashṭaka and navaka the expression ashṭaka-navaka-nalābhyām,
hasta is understood, may be seen from the fact that it is immediately preceded by Darvvikarma-hastēna in the Baigram
plate mentioned above, which obviously means ‘in accordance with the hand of Darvvīkarma.’ A similar expression occurs in two of the Faridpur grants referred to above, namely, Śivachandra-hast-āshṭaka-navaka-nalēna, where it
has been rendered by Pargiter by “according to the standard measure of eight reeds in breadth and nine reeds in length by the hand of . . . . Śivachandra” (Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXIX, pp. 202 and 205). That somebody, a king or an officer
fixed up the standard hasta can scarcely be doubted. The phrase Vṛishabhaśaṅkara-nala has already been referred
to. We may also draw attention to Chandradāsa-karaṇasya nala-pramāṇēna and Śrīkaraṇa-Śivadāsa-nāmaka-nala-pramā
ṇēna (JASB., 1896, Pt. I, p. 255, line 2; p. 256, line 12). The hasta was no doubt, sometimes that of the king,
as the phrase Vṛishabhaśaṅkara-nala indicates. Sometimes it denoted that of a holy man, because Śivachandra
whose hasta has been adverted to in the Faridpur grants has been described as dharmaśīla, ‘righteous.’ Whether
it similarly denoted the hasta of the officer Karaṇa or Śrīkaraṇa mentioned in the aforesaid Orissa plates is doubtful. What is here intended is that they fixed how many hastas a Nala should comprise and of what length a hasta should
............................................................................................................(Contd. on p. 339)
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