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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA (Sāndhivigrahika) Nāñīsiṁha out of their respective jāgīrs.[1] In the Mehār inscription, the real donor of the grant, therefore, seems to have been the royal officer Gaṅgādharadēva, the village of Mēhāra in which the gift land was situated probably lying in his own jāgīr. Unless Gaṅgādharadēva was intimately associated with the charter in this way, it is impossible to explain his introduction in the document. It seems also that on a previous occasion the village of Mēhāra formed part of the jāgīrs of two other officers, viz., Mahāsāndhivigrahika Munidāsa and Mahākshapaṭalika Dalaēva, who had created two rent-free holdings in the village with the king’s sanction. These two grants are referred to in our record in lines 29-31 without any specification of the amounts of rent allotted to them to show that the king and the new owner of the jāgīr (i.e., Gaṅgādharadēva) recognised the rent-free nature of the holdings in question. It is of course difficult to say whether these free holdings were created during the reign of Dāmōdara or one of his predecessors.
Before taking up the grant portion of the Mehār plate for scrutiny, a word may also be said in regard to the reading of the fractions employed in this section of the record in enumerating the area of different pieces of the gift land given in the land measure called Drōṇa or Drōṇavāpa and the amount of its income given in the coin called Purāṇa. As in other medieval records of Eastern India such as the Vaṅgīya Sāhitya Parishad plate[2] of Viśvarūparēna, ¼ is indicated by a vertical daṇḍa and 1/16 by a daṇḍa slanting from upper right towards lower left. That is to say, one vertical daṇḍa=¼, two vertical daṇḍas=2/4(½), and three vertical daṇḍas=¾ while one slanting daṇḍa=1/16, two slanting daṇḍas=2/16(⅛) and three slanting daṇḍas= 3/16. In line 19, the area of the plot of land granted to the Brāhmaṇa Śāṅkōka is given in a peculiar symbol which has been read by the learned editors as the numeral 7. But it has been overlooked that the total area of all the twentythree pieces of gift land is quoted in line 32 as 211/16 Drōṇas + 2 Drōṇas, i.e., altogether 411/16 Drōṇas only. This shows beyond doubt that the area of any one piece of the gift land cannot be 7 Drōṇas. Moreover, what has been read as 7 has no resemblance with that figure as found in epigraphic records and manuscripts. On the other hand, it resembles very closely the modern Bengali form of 2/16 (⅛) which was written in medieval inscriptions including the one under study with two slanting daṇḍas of the type described above. The symbol may thus be regarded as the cursive form of 2/16 (⅛). Another point deserving notice is that, although the editors have noted in their transcript (lines 20, 21, 23, 25, 26 and 29) seven cases of a cross being used after the slanting daṇḍa indicating ⅛, in the enumeration of the area of a piece of the gift land, this has been altogether ignored in their interpretation of the inscription. What has, moreover, been read as a cross in line 26 is actually a cross with a dot on its left and another on its right. The real value of the cross and the cross flanked by dots cannot be determined in the present state of our knowledge ; but it may be tentatively suggested that the former indicates 1/64 and the latter 2/64(1/32).[3] It will be seen below that these readings appear to be supported by the total area of the gift land quoted in line 32 of the record. Let us now quote the text of the grant portion of the Mehār inscription in lines 17-32. 17 uparilikhita-grāmē Sāvarṇṇya[4]-sagōtra-paṁ-śrī-Kāpaḍīkasya pañchaviṁśati-pu- 18 rāṇ-ōtpattika-gṛiha-vāṭik-ādi-ṭī 3 vyā-bhū[5] 2/4(½) sāṁ-hi 25 [|*] tathā Vrā(Brā)-śrī-Śāṅkōka- sya pañcha-purā- ______________________________________________
[1] See my papers on the Madanpārā and Vaṅgīya Sāhitya Parishad plates, contributed to JAS, Letters.
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