North Indian Inscriptions

ECONOMIC CONDITION

therefore, very frugal in those days. In Karnāṭaka a Brāhmaṇa of a similar status received in donation two mattars of land for his maintenance.[1] The exact extent of a mattar is not known. According to some, as mattar was equal to five acres.[2] If so, a Brāhmaṇa in Karnāṭaka received ten acres of land as his vṛitti. His income and, therefore, standard of living seem to have been better than those of his counterpart in the Kolhāpur region. In some grants the extent of land granted per Brāhmaṇa was even lower than that mentioned above. In some records vapraka is mentioned as a land-measure.[3] It was lower than a nivartana, but its exact extent is not known. Kamma is mentioned in one record. A hundred kammas made one mattar.[4] One record mentions stambha as a unit of measurement.[5]

.. The Smṛitis recommend that a king should donate houses to learned Brāhmaṇas. Yājñavalkya says that he should donate the necessary appurtenances also.[6] It is noteworthy that when the Śilāhāras granted land as distinguished from a whole village, they granted a house also for the residence of the donee.[7] The inscriptions mention the sizes of the houses donated. There were different types of houses, but that usually donated was twelve cubits in extent.[8] This means that it was twelve cubits in length and twelve cubits in breadth. It measured, therefore, 18 ft. in length and 18 ft. in breadth, i.e., it had an area of 324 sq. ft. It may have had four rooms of about 9 ft. by 9 ft. Besides, it had a court-yard (called khaḍavalaka in Kolhāpur records).[9] Ths house site was known as magila in the Kolhapur region.[10]

.. Several kinds of fields are mentioned in Śilāhāra inscriptions. They were probably named after the kinds of grains grown in them. See e.g. Pimparikā-kshētra, Koṭṭhāravēḍhi-kshētra, Khairōṇḍhā-kshētra, Vāṅkaḍi-kshētra, etc.[11] This appears certain in those cases where the name includes the word vāpa (sowing) such as Nāṇē-vāpa-kshētra, Vāḍē-vāpa-kshētra etc.[12] Some fields were called Śāli-kshētras.[13] They were fields of rice. The term vāingaṇa noticed in one record probably denotes a filed yielding two crops, one in winter and the other in summer.[14] term is even now current in Koṅkaṇ.

.. Silahāra inscriptions mention several measures of capacity and weight, and also coins current in the kingdoms. Those in North Koṅkaṇ are as in other parts of North Mahārāshṭra, while those in the Kolhāpur kingdom resemble those current in Karnāṭaka.

.. Measures of capacity−From the Thāṇā plates of Mummuṇi we get the following Table[15]-

20 kuḍavas−1 khaṇḍikā
4 khaṇḍikās−1 mūṭaka

.. The measures of capacity in use in the Kolhāpur kingdom were−hasara, sollage (one fourth of a kuḍarva or baḷḷa), baḷḷa (four maunds), koḍa, siddige (a dry or fluid measure of from
_______________________

[1] Ep. Ind., Vol. V, p. 22; No. 44, line 2.
[2] Altekar, The Rāshṭrakūṭas etc., p. 395.
[3] No. 48, lines 43-44; No. 58, line 30; No. 59, line 9.
[4] No. 44, line 2.
[5] No. 54, line 22.
[6] Yājñavalkya, I, v. 333.
[7] See e.g. No. 45, line 30.
[8] No. 53, line 24.
[9] No. 59, line 18.
[10] No. 48, line 38.
[11] No.14, lines 99 f.
[12] No. 14, lines 123 f.
[13] No. 59, line 9.
[14] No. 42, line 46.
[15] See, below p. 85.

Home Page