North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

12 Sva-dattāṁ para-dattām=bā¹ yō harēta vasuṁdharāṁ² [|*] bhūmi³-[dāna]-saṁva (ba)ddhā[ḥ*] ślōkā bhava[nti]

13 sa vishṭhāyāṁ krimir⁴=bhūtvā pitṛibhi⁵ saha pachyatē [|| 1*] [i*]ti [||*]

TRANSLATION

        (Lines 1-6) The year is 100 (and) 20 (and) 4, (the month) Phālguna, the day 7, while Paramadaivata Paramabhaṭṭārkka Mahārājādhiraja, the prosperous Kumāragupta is the lord of the earth; and while the Kōṭivarsha district is running on with (the rule of) Chirātadatta,⁶ an Uparika of the Puṇḍravardhana province, selected by His (Majesty’s) feet; and while Kumārāmātya Vētravarman, appointed by him (Chirātadatta), is administering the Board of the town⁷ presiding over the Nagara-śrēsḥthin Dhṛitipāla, the Sārthavāha Bandhumitra, the Prathama-Kukila Dhṛitimitra (and) the Prathama-Kāyastha⁸ Śāmbapāla.

       (Lines 6-9) Whereas the Brāhmaṇa Karpaṭika has applied: “Deign to make over a strip of wasteland,⁹ unploughed (and) not yielding (anything), for being used for my Agnihōtra rites, the sun and the stars (endure), in accordance with the nīvīdharma;¹⁰

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¹ Read –dattāṁ vā.
² Read –dharām.
³ This should have preceded the imprecatory verse.
⁴ Read Kṛimir=.
⁵ Read pitṛibhiḥ.
⁶ The phrase in this record is -Chirātadattēn=ānuvahamānaka-Kōṭivarsha-vishayē. In No. 24, below, it is -Chirāta- dattasya bhōgēn=ānuvahamānaka-Kōṭivarsha-vishayē. In No. 41, below, it is –Jayadattasya bhōgēn=ānuvahamānakē Kōṭi varsha-vishayē; and in No. 47, below, -rājaputra-dēva-bhaṭṭārakasya hasty-aśva-jana-bhōgēn=ānuvahamānakē Koṭivarsha-vishayē. In every one of the last three cases which are perfectly analogous with the first one, anuvahamānaka is preceded by bhōgēna. The phrase in our record should, therefore, be corrected into Chirātadatta-bhōgēn=ānuvahamā-naka-. Anuvahamānaka, of course, means ‘flowing on, running on.’ Bhōga has several senses, one of which is ‘rule, governance, authority,’ a sense which is supported by the phraseology hasty-aśva-jana-bhōgēna- occuring in No. 47, below. Perhaps, a better rendering of bhōga would be ‘enjoyment (of power)’.
⁷ Adhikaraṇam . . . saṁvyavaharati is taken by Basak to mean “administering the government etc.” (Ep. Ind., Vol. XV, p. 131). This view is dissented from by R. C. Majumdar. “It appears to me, however, “says he, “that the question, here, is not general administration, but merely the administration of justice. This follows from the ordinary meanings of the terms adhikaraṇa and vyavahāra, viz., ‘court of law’ and ‘administration of justice,’ and I do not see any reason why these words should be stretched to cover the idea of general administration” (Corporate Life in Ancient India, 2nd ed., pp. 64-65). In 1903-04, when T. Bloch excavated a site at Basāḍh, the ancient Vaiśālī, he lighted upon many seals of the early Gupta period, bearing such legends as: Kumārāmāty-ādhikaraṇsya, yuvarāja-bhaṭṭāraka-pādīya-bal-ādhikaraṇasya, Śrī-raṇabhāṇḍāgār-ādhikaraṇasya, Dāṇḍapāś-ādhikaraṇasya, and so forth (A.R. ASI., 1903-04, pp. 107 ff). This shows that the term adhikaraṇa was used in the sense of ‘Kachahri’ in the early Gupta epoch, that is, ‘any court or board of administration, judicial, customary, ecclesiastical or military.’
⁸ These four officers did not constitute a Board of Advisers to help Vētravarman, but rather all the five formed the Administrative Board for the governance of the Kōṭivarsha town. The Board must have been something like a Pañchakula or Panchāyat for the town so frequently referred to in the mediaeval inscriptions of North India; compare e.g., tan-niyukta-mahaṁ⁰ Gajasīha-prabhṛiti-paṁchakula-pratipattau (Ep. Ind., Vol. XI, p. 57, lines 5-6). It is worthy of note that Vētravarman is here designed Kumārāmātya, and not Vishayapati. It is only in No. 47 below, that we find a Vishayapati mentioned as the Head of the Administrative Board of the District Town. For the explanation of the terms Kumārāmātya, Nagaraśrēshhṭin and so forth, see Introduction, pp. 101 ff.
⁹ Sanskrit lexicons make khila synonymous with aprahata. Here, however, a distinction is sought to be made.Aprachata is ‘fallow land’, but khila apparently denotes ‘land never tilled.’
¹⁰ In II. 9.80, Amara makes nīvī, paripaṇa and mūladhana as synonymous terms; and in III. 3.212, he assigns to the word the two senses of strī-kaṭī-vastra-bandha and paripaṇa. A commentary called Mukuṭa, however, distinguishes between paripaṇa and mūladhana. The first is rājaputr-ādēr=bandhakē, ‘giving of a prince etc., as a hostage;’ and the second, vaṇijām mūladhanē, ‘the capital or principal invested with traders. Haima also gives these three different senses to that term by saying nīvī strī-kaṭī-vastra-bandhanē mūla-dravyē paripaṇē (see in the Nāmaliṅgānuśasana published by the Nirṇaya-sāgara Press, the commentary on III.3.312). The word nīvī occurs also in other records
..................................................................................................................(Contd. on page 287)