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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA letters of the lower one, consisting of eight lines of writing in Gauḍῑya characters and covering an area of about 31 inches by 15½ inches, are more or less obliterated, although a few lines of the record can be confidently deciphered. The preservation of the other inscription on this side is, however, fairly satisfactory, even though it suffers from a crack in the right half of the stone, which has damaged a letter or two in every line of writing in the epigraph. This inscription has been recently edited in the Orissa Historical Research Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2 (July 1952), pp. 7-8. Unfortunately the published transcript of the epigraph is not free from errors and omissions. The editor of the record also admits that its latter part is unintelligible to him. Moreover he does not notice the interesting fact that the chief, whose donation is recorded in the inscription in question, is already known to the student of South Indian epigraphy from a number of other records. For these reasons, I re-edit the inscription in the following pages. The inscription covers a space of about 32½ inches in length and 12 inches in height. It contains seven lines of writing. The characters belong to the Gauḍῑya alphabet as prevalent in Orissa about the twelfth century A.D The language is corrupt Sanskrit, although the record is couched in a poetical style of prose composition as noticed in a few other similar inscriptions from Orissa.[1] It seems that the author, who was a poor Sanskritist, was eager to impart the idea that the record was composed by him in verse. Little calls for special notice in regard to the orthography of the epigraph. The date of the inscription, expressed in words in lines 1-2, is the 15th day of the dark half of the month of Karnataka (solar Śrāvaṇa) in the expired Śaka year 1064 corresponding to 1142 A.D.
The object of the inscription is to record the gift of a perpetual lamp to the god Kēdārēśvara, described as the lord of the three worlds (tri-bhuvana-vibhu) by Rājan Pramāḍi who is stated to have been the anuja (younger brother) of king Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga. Pramāḍi is also described as one who regarded Lord Kēdārēśvara to be the Supreme Being (bhagavach-chhrῑ Kēdārēśvar-aika-para). It is further stated that the inhabitants of the village of Nāgagarbhā in the Païṁdā vishaya (district), headed by the Pradhānī (headman)[2] named Saṇḍa, received five Māḍhas of gold, apparently from the donor of the perpetual lamp, viz., Rājan Pramāḍi. The inscription then goes on to say that the villagers receiving the money had to pay interest at the rate of one ‘quarter’ per month (māsa-pādika-kalā),the amount payable by them monthly being five ‘quarters’ (pañcha-pāda) for the five gold Māḍhas. The word pāda meaning ‘a quarter’ may of course be taken here to indicate one quarter of a gold Māḍha which is believed to have been a coin weighing forty Ratīs that was prevalent in medieval Orissa. In that case the monthly interest for the five gold Māḍhas would be 1¼ gold Māḍhas ; that is to say, the interest was calculated at the rate of 25 per cent. per month. But, although the rate of interest was very high in ancient and medieval India, the rate suggested by the above interpretation of the record appears to be quite abnormal especially in view of the fact that usually the interest on a permanent endowment (like the one referred to in our inscription) was considerably lower than the normal interest on a similar amount. According to a rule, when nothing was pledged as security the rate of monthly interest payable by the ancient Indian debtor of respectively the Brāhmaṇa, Kshatriya, Vaiśya and Śūdra communities was 2, 3, 4 and 5 per cent., while there is epigraphic evidence to show that the monthly ____________________________________________________
[1] Cf. above, pp. 22-23. 31-32, etc.
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