South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

In addition to conveying the village itself, the record recites, in line 70 f., the grant in perpetuity, to a certain Kusumâyudha, son of Kaṭṭalâmbâ, of the grâmakûṭatva or office of Grâmakûṭa or headman of the village. The post was evidently that of the village official who is known in Marâṭhî as the Pâṭêl or Pâṭîl, and in Kanarese as the Gavuḍa or Gauḍa.

Of the Kanarese word gavuḍa or gauḍa, we have various earlier forms, ─ gauṇḍa,^[1] gavuṇḍa,^[2] gâvuṇḍa,^[3] gavuṇḍu,^[4] gâvuṇḍu,^[5] gâmuṇḍa,^[6] and gâmuṇḍu.^[7] And we can now see that it was derived from the word grâmakûṭa itself, through a corruption of grâma into some such form as the gâṁvu which occurs as the termination of certain village-names in the Paiṭhaṇ plates of A.D. 1272,^[8] coupled with, in kûṭa, a disappearance of the k and a softening of the ṭ into ḍ, and accompanied by a shifting of the nasality of the first component of the word. It may be added that, in colloquial usage, the modern form gauḍa is often nasalised and pronounced gauṇḍa ; also, that Professor Pischel tells me that the Dêśînâmamâlâ, ii. 69, gives gâmaüḍa as the Pṛâkṛit form of grâmakûṭa.

It may be remarked here that the Marâṭhî word pâṭêl, pâṭîl, can now be distinctly traced back to the earlier word paṭṭakila, which we have in, for instance, the Ujjain plates of A.D. 975 and 1023^[9] and the Bhôpâl plates of A.D. 1200,^[10] through an intermediate form paṭṭêla which I have found in a Sanskṛit Nâgarî inscription, of about the thirteenth century A.D., at Mañchar in the Poona district, in which a certain person is described, in verse, as paṭṭêla-varya, “ best or chief of the paṭṭêlas.” In this case, again, there has been an elision of a medial k.

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In line 72, the record presents the expression âjñaptiḥ kaṭakâdhîśaḥ. The word âjñapti means literally ‘a command.’ But, as has been indicated before now, in such passages as the present one it was employed to denote the Dûtaka or messenger, whose duty it was to communicate the fact and details of a grant to the local authorities.^[11] What was intended by the word kaṭakâdhîśa, has not been so obvious. But it can now be made clear by a comparison of
passages.

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^[1] Vol. V. above, p. 232, and p. 247, line 34.
^[2] Ibid. p. 232.
^[3] Ibid. pp. 214, 261 ; and Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 219, the last line of the text : this last instance is of A.D. 866.
^[4] Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. X. p. 245, line 48.
^[5] Ibid. p. 204, line 1, and p. 245, line 46 ; the first of these two instances is of A.D. 980.
^[6] Ind. Ant.Vol. XI. p. 70, line 17, of about A.D. 750 ; and id. Vol. XIX. p. 144, line 8 ff., of about A.D. 690.
^[7] Id. Vol. XII. p. 271, lines 12, 13 ; this instance is of A.D. 973.
^[8] See id. Vol. XXX. p. 517.
^[9] Id. Vol. VI. p. 51, line 10, and p. 53, line 7-8. Mr. N. J. Kirtane, who edited those records, recognised the meaning of paṭṭakila, and translated it by pâṭîl.
^[10] Id. Vol. XVI. p. 254, line 10.
^[11] See, for instance, id. Vol. XX. pp. 18, 96, and Vol. V. above, p. 119.─ The word has, indeed, been otherwise rendered, by ‘executor;’ see South-Ind, Inscrs. Vol. I. pp. 36, 62, and Vol. V. above, p. 71. But that is opposed by such expressions as âjñâ svayam and sva-mukh-âjñayâ in two of the records of the Eastern Gaṅgas of Kaliṅganagara ; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 121, line 19, and Vol. III. above, p. 129, line 24. The word âjñâ, also, means ‘a command.’ It was, indeed, sometimes used in the same technical sense with âjñapti : for instance, another Eastern Gaṅga record says âjñâ mahâmahattara-Gauriśarmm[â*], “ the âjñâ is the Mahâmahattara Gauriśarma ;” see Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 123, line 24. But in the expression sva-mukh-âjñayâ it is to be translated by its ordinary meaning of ‘command ;’ the passage tells us that “ this charter of Râjasiṁha has been written, at the command of his (the king’s) own mouth, by Vinayachandra, son of Bhânuchandra.” In the expression âjñâ
svayam, it may have a more technical meaning. But it cannot there mean ‘executor ;” for, a king would certainly not attend in person to the administration of an endowment made by him. On the other hand, neither would he act as a Dûtaka ;and Prof. Kielhorn has reminded me of two cases in which the expression âjñâ svayam, in the transposed
form svayam=âjñâ, “ the âjñâ is Ourself,” is followed by the words dûtakaś=ch=âtra, “ and the Dûtaka in this matter is, etc.,” introducing the name of a person who was not the king who is designated by the words svayam= âjñâ ; see In. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 170, line 21, and p. 175, line 22-23.