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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
SIDDHESWAR INSCRIPTION OF NARASIMHA IV ; and here refers to the peculiar Aṅka reckoning connecting with the medieval rulers of Orissa. Omitting, according to rule, the years 1, 6 and 16, the 19th Aṅka year of Gaṅga Narasiṁha IV would indicate his 16th regnal year corresponding to circa 1394 A.C. The details of the date suggest Monday, the 27th July, 1394 A.C., to be the actual date of the document. The inscription records the grant of part of a village called Bhaïṁgrāma which was situated in the Raāṅga vishaya or district. The revenue-income (jita) of the land was 50 māḍhas probably of silver. The said district formed a part of Pūrvadik-Daṇḍapāṭa, i.e., the eastern administrative unit. The governor of this Daṇḍapāṭa (daṇḍa-parīkshā) was Nandikeśvara-sāndhivigrahika who was subordinate to a higher officer, Śrīkaraṇa-paṭṭanāyaka (designation of the chief officer in charge of the records department) Viśvanātha-mahāsenāpati. Viśvanātha was the chaturdik-daṇḍaparīkshā, i.e., the governor-general of four Daṇḍapāṭas in the east, west, north and south in a particular area of the Gaṅga kingdom. The same officer is no doubt mentioned as Purośrīkaraṇa Viśvanātha-mahāsenāpati in the second set (VI A, line 24 ; VI B, lines 3-4, 12) of the two Puri plates of Narasiṁha IV.[1] A Siṁhāchalam inscription of Śaka 1313 (1319 A.C.)[2] mentions Viśvanātha-mahāsenāpati as the Śrīkaraṇa-paṭṭanāyaka of Vārāṇasī-kaṭaka, i.e., modern Cuttack, which was the capital of the later imperial Gaṅgas.
The grant is said to have been made with the consent of all the administrative officers including the pasāita, mudula, koshṭha-karaṇa and bhāga-loka of the Daṇḍapāṭa in question and was exempted from the payment of all taxes (avadāna) including ohoru, pāukā, pāikā, bheṭa, vodā and paridarśanā. The word pasāita is derived from Sanskrit prasāda which is used in the form pasāya or pasāstuṁ in Gujarati in the sense of “ land separated for the maintenance of the village-artisans or for religious and charitable purposes ”. The official designations pasāita or pasaïta and mahāpasāita are also found in other Oriya inscriptions.[3] Mudula is the same as modern Oriya muduli indicating a class of servants of the god Jagannātha conceived as an emperor.[4] Koshṭhakaraṇa seems to indicate officials of the revenue department called Koshṭha-vyāpāra in the Puri Plates (B) of Narasiṁha IV.[5] The expression bhāga-loka may be the same as bhāga-bhuj found in the Kanas plate of Lokavigraha.[6] Among the taxes mentioned in the list of exemptions, ohoru is apparently the same as daṇḍoāsi-ohora, i.e., the watchman-tax, mentioned in a Jagannath temple inscription.[7] Paūkā may be modern Oriya pāuseri and may have been a tax on the money realised by the creditors from the debtors. Pāikā is apparently the same as padātijīvya of other inscriptions8 and pāikāli of modern Oriya. It was probably a tax levied for the maintenance of the clubmen. Bheṭa means a periodical or occasional offering of money and vodā (the same as modern Oriya vadāi) a similar offering of uncooked food. Paridarśanā, as the name implies, was a supervision-tax, although its real nature is uncertain. The purpose of the grant was apparently the long life (cf. āsa … for Sanskrit āyushkāmārthe in line 6) of king Narasiṁha IV. Owing to the damaged condition of the second part of the record under review, the names of the donee and the donor are not easy to determine. But it is permissible _________________________________________________
[1] JASB, Vol. LXIV, Part I, pp. 151-152 ; above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 302 ff. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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