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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA turned into a cultivable land).[1] In our grant, however, eleven types of enjoyments are named and besides some more are implied by the expression ity-ādi, and still they are called ashṭa-bhōga. This means that all possible privileges or conditions with reference to the gift village were transferred to the donees. The donees of the brahmadēya grants used to receive all the taxes payable by the inhabitants to the king, but themselves had to pay nothing.[2] Of the above list, the first four-bhōgas occur in our grant. Among the other privileges, śulka is the same as bhūt-ōpātta-pratyāya, a tax on what has been produced or manufactured (bhūta) and what has been imported (upātta), i.e. some general excise and octroi duties.[3] The terms vāt-ādēya, āvāta, vāta-pratāya and akara-vāt-ōttara occur in inscriptions : but in all these upātta seems to have been Prakritised as āvāta or vāta. Daṇḍa is daṇḍāya, i.e. the right to receive the fines imposed upon the delinquents.[4] Dāṇa seems to be some kind of customs duty ; cf. Gujarātī dāṇachōrī (smuggling) and the Marāṭhï surname Dāṇī. The latter is explained in the Mahārāshṭra Sabdakōśa as ‘ the officer collecting the tax on corn ’, ‘ the officer to store the corn collected as tax from the farmers’.[5] Kāruka is some tax on the artisans and craftsmen.[6] Maulika means traditional or customary tax.[7] Dr. Altekar explains maulika-arhaṇas, ‘ perquisites of hereditary officers ’, as the receipts of the headman who enjoyed the taxes in kind and used to receive a share of most of the articles produced or sold in their villages.[8] Alternatively, we may connect maulika with Marāṭhī mōḷī ‘ the burden of grass or fuel that a man can carry on his head ’. In that case, the term may indicate some octroi duty in kind over the imported goods. Śrōtra[9] is a fiscal term of uncertain import. MM. D. V. Potdar suggested to me that it might be a Sanskritisation of ślōtra or silōtra from Sanskrit śilōttara. According to the Mahārāshṭra Śabdakōśa, śilōtarā, śilōtarī or śilōtrī means the tax in kind (a maund per bighā) to be collected from the cultivator by the person (called ijārdār) taking possession of Government land on contract for a fixed period. Tēja, also written tējas,[10] is a puzzle. In several inscriptions,[11] tēja-svāmya is mentioned over and above the ashṭa-bhōga.
The boundaries of the gift village are carefully noted in the grant : Gaṅgā (Gōdāvarī) in the north ; Nāigauṁ and Khāmbhagauṁ in the west ; Nīmbaravīṁ in the east ; and Rāñjaṇagauṁ and Dahīṁgauṁ in the south. The modern equivalents of these names are : Limbārī or Nimbārī (two miles to the east of Kālēgāon), Dahigaon and Rāñjaṇī (four miles to the south), Khāmgaon (three miles to the west). Nāigauṁ is a difficulty. About four miles to the west of Kālēgaon there is an old village named Varakhēḍ which was formerly a centre of Brahmanic learning and where even at this day live certain Brāhmaṇa families belonging to the Ṛigvēda and the Vasishṭha, Viśvāmitra and Jāmadagnya gōtras. In the list of the donees of this grant we do find Rigvēdins with these gōtras and this fact may be regarded as supporting the identification of Varakhēḍ with ________________________________________________
[1] See the Nallur grant (1389 A.D.) of Harihara II, verses 26-27. Cf. above, Vol. III, p. 123 ; also p. 245 (verse
7).
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