North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

        The contents of the inscription may be stated as follows: In the Gupta year 113 (=432-33 A.D.), belonging evidently to the reign of Kumāragupta I, some one, (very likely a royal officer, an āyuktaka), whose name seems to have ended in -vishṇu (line 7), approached the village house-holders, the mahattaras and the ashṭa-kul-ādhikaraṇas and, perhaps, also the local government of the district and expressed to them his desire to purchase one kulyavāpa of cultivated land by paying the price at the usual rate prevalent in the vishaya of Khādā(ṭa?)pāra. It seems that the applicant wanted to buy the land by destroying the nīvī-dharma (the non-transferability of it), i.e., with the right of alienation. His prayer was granted and the purchased land was severed for him by proper measurement. He, in turn, seems to have made a donation of the same to a Sāmavēdin Brāhmaṇa (Chhandōga, line 12) of the name of Varāha-svāmin. It seems very probable, though the mutilated condition of the plate does not permit us to be very confident on the point, that the Dhanāidaha plate contained a reference to the Puṇḍravardhana bhukti being under a governor appointed by the Gupta ruler (compare the Dāmōdarpur plates of the Gupta years 124 and 128, belonging to the same monarch’s reign) and that the vishaya of Khādā(ṭa?)pāra was, like Kōṭivarsha, one of the many districts of the same bhukti. In the Khālimpur copper-plate¹ of Dharmapāla, king of Gauḍa, though of the 9th century A.D., We have the names of two other vishayas, viȥ., Mahāntāprakāśa (line 31) and Sthālīkkaṭa line 41), as being situated in the bhukti of Paṇḍravardhana.

TEXT

1 . . . . . . . mvatsara²-śat[ē] trayōdaś-ōtta-
2 [rē*]³ . . . . . [asyā*]n=d[i]vasa-pūravvāyāṁ parama-daivata-para-
3 . . . . . . . ā(?) kuṭu[mbi] . . . . . brāhmaṇa-Śivaśarmma-Nāgaśarmma-maha-
4 . . . . . . . va-kīrtti-Kshēmadatta-Gōshṭhaka-Varggapāla-Piṅgala-Śuṅkuka-Kāla-
5 . . . . . . . pa(?)-vishṇu-[Dēva]śarmma-Vishṇubhadra-Khāsaka-Rāmaka-Gōpāla-
6 . . . . . . . sa(?) su(?) Śrībhadra-Sōmapāla-Rām-ādyāḥ(?) grām-āshṭa-kul-ādhikara- ṇañ=cha
7 . . . . . . . vishṇunā (?) vijñāpitā, iha Khādā(ṭa?)pāra-vishayē=nuvṛitta-maryyādā -sthi[ti]-
8 . . . . . . . nīvī-dharmma-kshayēṇa⁴ labhya[tē] [ta]d=arhatha mam =ādy=ānēn=aiva kkramēna(ṇa) dā[tuṁ]
9 samēty=ā(?)bhihitai(ḥ?) sarvvam=ēva jñā(?)kara⁵ –prativēśi(?)-kuṭumbibhir=avasthāpya ka-
10 . . . . . . . ri. kana. yad=itō . . . [ta]d=avadhṛitam=iti yatas=tath=ēti pratipādya
11 . . . . . . . vaka-nalā[bhyā]m⁶=apaviñchhya kshētra-kulyavāpam=ēkaṁ dattaṁ tataḥ āyuktaka-
12 . . . . . . . bhrā(?)tṛi-kaṭaka-vāstavya-Chhandōga-brāhmaṇa-Varāhasvāminō dattaṁ tad=dha[va?]-
13 bhūmyā dā[n-ākshē]pē cha guṇ-āguṇam=anuchintya śarīra-ka(kā)ñchanakasya chi-
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¹ EP. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 249.
² Read saṁvatsara-,
³ [D.C. Sircar restores the first few letters of this line as Saṁ 100+10+3.Sel. Ins., 1965, p. 288.–Ed.].
⁴ [D.C. Sircar reads nīvī-dharmm-ākshayēṇa. Ibid.–Ed.]
⁵ [D.C. Sircar restores as kshētrakara. Ibid.–Ed.].
⁶ Read ashṭaka-navaka-nalābhyām=.