North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

kshetra, Nihura-kshētra etc. While stating the boundaries of the donated fields in these villages the following particulars are specified : fields, hills, ukāsa (fields producing subsidiary grains), fruit-gardens, trees, rows of boundary-stones (pāshāṇa-śṛiṅkhalikā), small streams, cow-paths, khajjana (salty land), pānīya-prapāṭas (water-falls), salty streams, temples, royal roads etc.

..The produce of the fields in the aforementioned villages in rice-measures and drammas was assigned to the following Vāvailaka Brāhmaṇas. They had not all come from Karahāṭa like those mentioned before, but had migrated from different places as stated below :

.. While stating the measures of grains, the following are mentioned—mūṭaka, khaṇḍikā and kuṭapa. Lines 115-116 state first the quantity of grains in one donation as one mūṭaka less five kuṭapas, and later mention the same quantity as follows: 4 khaṇḍikās and 15 mūṭakas. They give the following measures of food-grains—

20 kuṭapas — 1 khanḍikā
4 khaṇḍikās — 1 mūṭaka

..These measures varied from village to village. So to state the intended measure the expression grāma-mānēna is used. It shows that intended measure is that current in the particular village. In the case of the measures of Sthānaka (the capital), Kallivana-mānēna is used, which probably refers to the measures current in Kallivana (modern Kalvaṇ in the Nāsik District). In some cases the produce was exempted from excise dues or toll cess.

.. As for the localities mentioned in the present grant, the Varēṭikā vishaya seems to have comprised part of the modern Karjat tālukā of the Kōlābā District, as many of the villages mentioned as situated in it can be satisfactorily identified in the vicinity of the Bhivapurī Road Station of the Central Railway, which lies in the Karjat tālukā. The identifications of most of them were first suggested to me by Mr. N. B. Atre, who belongs to that locality. Later, they were identified by Dr. M. G. Dikshit with the aid of large-scale Survey Maps. [1] “Ēkasāla is to be identified with the village of the same name, now situated about 1 ½ miles to the north of the Bhivapurī Road Railway station on the Central Railway. About a furlong to the north
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kshētras (line 120) and two Tōraṇī-kshētras (line 123). These must evidently have been rice-fields and so in addition to a certain number of dramas, a levy in rice-grain is mentioned for being paid to the donees. In other fields other food-grains may have been grown. It is not known whether Kōṭṭhāra, Vāḍa, Nihura, Tōraṇī etc. were different kinds of rice grown in these fields. Dr. Dikshit states on the authority of some residents of Kōṅkaṇ that Pōṅḍhā, Choli, Ṭhāpaḍa, Āvaḍa etc. are fields of different types (J.O.I., Vol. XII, pp. 273 f.) In some cases it is clear that the fields were named after the crops grown in them. See Nāṇēvāpa-kshētra, lines 123-24; and Vāḍē-vāpa-kshētra, line 124. The present grant, contains some words not met with in Sanskrit dictionaries e.g. palāṇḍa meaning produce in grains, ukāsa meaning a field producing subsidiary grains (cf. varakas in Marathi), vāvaka meaning a field (cf. vāvara in Marathi) etc.
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[1] J.O.I., Vol. XII, p. 206.