Post on 31-Mar-2023
Revaluation of Tradition in the Ideology of the Radical Adivasi Resistance 1
A Hoard of Copper Plates: Patronage and the Early Valkha State
Suchandra Ghosh1
Abstract
The horizontal spread of the state society accompanying the institution of land grants leading to the formation of a monarchical state polity is frequently witnessed during c. 300–600 CE. Among the many new and small kingdoms which surfaced during the time of the Guptas was the kingdom of Valkha in Central India located on the banks of the Narmada. The kingdom, as it appears from their land grants, was situated on both sides of the Narmada river, at the southern periphery of the important Gupta strongholds in central India (Airikin. a, Eran) and beyond the northern frontier of the Vakat.akas kingdom to the south. In case of the Valkha kingdom, it appears that in the process of transi-tion from a pre-state to a state, it can be placed in a category where, with the formation of the kingdom around the mid-fourth century CE, Valkha has just transcended the pre-state stage and could be placed in the genre of an early state. We seek to understand the early character of the Valkha state through the lens of twenty-seven copper plates found together in a hoard and five others published in a scattered manner. It goes to the credit of K.V. Ramesh and S.P. Tewari who edited the plates in 1990 and revealed the names of the rulers of Valkha. Through a reading of these charters we seek to understand the emer-gence and growth of the Valkha state. Due to the donations, the donee assumes a significant position and so the nature of patronage of the Valkha rulers becomes central to our study.
KeywordsState society, patronage, Valkha kingdom, brahmadeya, agrahara, panchamahayajna
Historians of the state, society and economy in India from 600 to 1300 CE have extensively drawn upon and investigated copper-plate charters for their
1 Associate Professor, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
Article
Studies in History31(1) 1–29
© 2015 Jawaharlal Nehru UniversitySAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.navDOI: 10.1177/0257643014558460
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Corresponding author:Suchandra Ghosh, 1/3 Gopal Chandra Bose Lane, Sinthee, Kolkata 700 050, India. E-mail: suchandra64@gmail.com
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study. In other words, copper-plate charters recording the king’s grant of villages or land to brahmanas or temples are one of the basic historical sources of early medieval India. With these charters numerous revenue-free settlements (agrahara, brahmadeya, devadana, etc.) were created in almost every part of India. These charters are markers of significant shifts in polity, economy and society. In the pre-600 CE period too, land grants inscribed on copper plates form the bulk of evidence for the study of polity, economy and society. The horizontal spread of the state society accompanying the institution of land grant frequently resulted in the formation of a monarchical state polity from c. 300 to 600 CE. State formation in regions without prior experience of the state was a continuing process.2 We have profusion of donative records, available from disparate regions of India dur-ing five centuries from c. 200 BCE to 300 CE.3 The donors were, however, mainly persons from occupational and professional groups, mostly merchants and women who donated largely to Buddhist and Jaina establishments. From around c. 300 CE, the nature of the donor as well as the pattern of patronage underwent changes. As mentioned earlier there was a spurt in the number of monarchical powers not only in the Ganga valley or in the deltas of the Godavari and the Krishna, but also in remote areas or fringe zones. Land grants to brahmanas and the genesis and growth of temple-building activities, the two perceived markers of patronage since 300 CE, can be appreciated in the context of the need to legitimize the emerging political structure and society.4 Rulers derived their legitimation through patronage to brahmanas, local deities and religious centres among others.
The period from c. 300 to 600 CE saw the beginning of royal elites who, in order to supplement their political control, engaged in construction of genealogies and giving out their resources to brahmanas, temples and monasteries. Among the many new and small kingdoms which surfaced during the time of the Guptas was the kingdom of Valkhā in Central India, located on the banks of the Narmada. During this period and after, a horizontal spread of state society has been sug-gested implying transformation of pre-state polities into state polities.5 In the case of the Valkhā kingdom, it appears that in the process of transition from pre-state to state, it can be placed in a category where with the formation of the kingdom in around the mid-fourth century CE, Valkhā has just transcended the pre-state stage and could be placed in the genre of an early state. Claessen and Skalnik divided the early state into three types, the inchoate, the typical and the transitional, each
2 B.D. Chattopadhyaya, ‘Political Processes and the Structure of Polity in Early Medieval India’, in The Making of Early Medieval India (2nd edition) (New Delhi: Oxford, 2012), 211–12.3 For donative records, among others, see H. Luders, Inscriptions of Mathura, ed. K.L. Janert (Gottingen, 1961); H. Luders, ‘A List of Brahmi Inscriptions up to AD 400 with the Exception of Those of Asoka’, being a supplement to EI X, 1912.4 For a discussion see B.D. Chattopadhyaya, ‘Historical Context of the Early Medieval Temples of North India’, in Studying Early India (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003), 153–71; and B.P. Sahu, ‘The Early State in Orissa, From the Perspective of Changing Forms of Patronage and Legitimation’, in The Changing Gaze (New Delhi: Oxford, 2013), 129–51.5 B.D. Chattopadhyaya, ‘Political Processes’, 212.
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having certain dominant features.6 In the following pages an attempt would be made to ascertain the category where one can situate the Valkhā state.
We seek to understand the early character of the Valkhā state through the lens of twenty-seven copper plates found together in a hoard and five others published in a scattered manner. Like most other hoards, the story of their discovery falls in the category of a chance find. While cultivating a field in a settlement known as Risavala, near present Bagh (Madhya Pradesh), in 1982, the hoard was found with the only exception being that in lieu of coins which are mainly discovered in hoards, here we had a huge copper container, covered with a copper lid. On uncovering the cover, a hoard of twenty-eight (one was broken) neatly arranged copper sheets, which were fully covered with patina as well as soil, saw the light of day. It goes to the credit of K.V. Ramesh and S.P. Tewari who edited the plates in 1990 and revealed the names of the rulers of Valkhā.7 Before the discovery of these twenty-seven copper plates, five other copper plates of rulers of this region were discovered and published but scholars could not locate the kingdom of Valkhā.8 These plates belonged to Bhulunda, Svāmīdāsa and Rudradāsa. In the hoard the other rulers are Bhaṭṭāraka and Nāgabhaṭa. It is clear that the first ruler Bhulunda had a non-Sanskritic name (use of hard sounds in the name is instructive) while the others used Sanskritized names such as Svāmīdāsa, Rudradāsa and so on. The plates do not give us any clue to genetically relate these rulers and this belies any prospect of formation of any dynasty. The only common factor relates to the name of the kingdom. Thus, any sort of conjecture is possible. On the basis of the similarity in the recording of these charters we may imagine a loose connection. Their inscriptions are in all probability dated during the Gupta reckoning and they acknowledge the superiority of the paramabhaṭṭaraka, most probably the Gupta emperor, and use a less grandiose title maharaja. All the charters begin with paramabhaṭṭaraka – pad = anuddhyato. This expression also figures in the inscriptions of many of the feudatories of the period.9 In a study of courtly culture in early medieval India, Daud Ali remarks ‘the focus on feet in courtly circles developed into a rich language of power’. He has shown that this terminology spread to kingdoms throughout the subcontinent in a huge number
6 Henri J.M. Claessan and Peter Skalnik, eds, The Early State (The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1978), 640–41. An inchoate state had limited trade and markets, very little private ownership of land, taxes were voluntary, no codification of laws and so on. For a typical state, trade and markets should be developed, state ownership was gradually becoming important, a start towards codification of law could be seen, etc. In a transitional state, trade and markets were of great importance, appointment of functionaries were dominant, private ownership of land was gaining importance and taxation was developing into a well-defined system with a complex apparatus.7 K.V. Ramesh and S.P. Tewari, A Copper-Plate Hoard of the Gupta Period from Bagh, Madhya Pradesh (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1990). Henceforth, this book will be referred to as Bagh CP.8 Bagh CP, Appendix, 60–70.9 D.C. Sircar, ‘Khoh Copper-Plate Inscription of Sarvanatha, Gupta Year 193 (=512AD)’, Select Inscriptions Bearing on Indian History and Civilizations, vol. I (Delhi: V.K. Publishing House, 1993), 390.
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of inscriptions and became a common political idiom.10 Padanudhyata is com-monly translated as ‘meditating at the feet of’ but recently Ferrier and Torzsok11 have offered a different explanation for the use of this term. According to them, the correct understanding appears to be ‘favoured by the feet of’ where feet is an honorific, the whole expression meaning ‘favoured by the respected’. Thus, the expression seems to imply that the subordinate ruler derives his authority and power from his overlord, in this case, perhaps the Gupta rulers. With the penetra-tion of Gupta power in the region, emergence of a state structure following the pattern of the Gupta administrative system is noticed. Along with the Guptas, the Vākāṭaka influence could also be discerned in the administrative terminolo-gies of the Valkhā kingdom. As these rulers were of local origin, it is possible to show how the Gupta and Vākāṭaka incursions gave rise to a transformation of the indigenous elites of the region. Since the inscriptions are dated we can locate their contemporary Gupta and Vākāṭaka rulers.
The kingdom, as it appears from its land grants,12 was situated on both sides of the Narmada river, at the southern periphery of the important Gupta strongholds in central India (Airikina, Eran). Eastern Malwa around Eran came under the Gupta rule during the reign of Samudragupta13 (c. 335–375 CE) and continued to be associated with the Gupta realm till the reign of Budhagupta (c. 475–496/500 CE).14 In fact his Eran Stone Pillar inscription of the year 165 or 483/4 CE speaks of the rule of his governor Surasmichandra between the Kālinidī (Yamuna) and Narmada (Kālinidī Narmmadayor = mmadhyam) embracing eastern Malwa. From an inscription inside a cave at Udaygiri in Vidisā,15 we learn that Chandragupta II (c. 375–414 CE) was present in eastern Malwa with an ardent desire to conquer the world (kritsna-prithvī jayārtthena). The Tumain (ancient Tumbavana) inscription of Kumaragupta I, year 116,16 is indicative of Gupta occupation also in the west of
10 Daud Ali, Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 126. Ali has given a detailed bibliographical list regarding the dynasties using this kind of terminology; the Valkhā rulers are, however, not mentioned.11 Cedrick Ferrier and Judith Torzsok, ‘Meditating on the King’s Feet? Some Remarks on the Expression Padanudhyata’, Indo-Iranian Journal, 51 (2008): 100–1.12 Bagh CP, 1–70.13 ‘Eran Stone Inscription of Samudragupta’, in Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, ed. D.R. Bhandarkar, Vol. III (Revised) (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1981), 220–24.14 ‘Eran Stone Inscription of Budhagupta: The Year 165’, ibid., 339–41. 15 ‘Udaygiri Cave Inscription of Chandragupta II’, ibid., 255–56. Also see Ranabir Chakravarti, Exploring Early India, Up to c. AD 1300 (New Delhi: Macmillan, 2013), 231–40 for a succinct over-view of the growth and spread of the Gupta realm.16 ‘Tumain Inscription of Kumaragupta I: The Year 116’, in Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, ed. D.R. Bhandarkar, Vol. III (Revised) (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 198), 276–79. In the story of Bavari from the Sutta Nipata we learn that Bavari, who lived on the banks of the Godavari sent his disciples to the Buddha in Sravasti. Their route has been described as Patitthana of Mulaka (Paithan); then the city of Mahissati (Mahismati); also Ujjeni (Ujjayini) and Gonaddha (Gonardha); Vedisa; Vana-Savhaya (near Tumain); and Savatthi (Sravasti). Thus, Tumain was the part of an important route. See P.N. Bhattacharya, Historical Geography of Madhya Pradesh from Early Records (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977), 258.
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Eran, in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. This entire region came under the occupation of the Guptas perhaps during the reign of Samudragupta and was con-solidated by his successors Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta I till Budhagupta as none of the Gupta rulers are known to have made any conquest in this region. Tumbavana being located on a very important trade route was a coveted region. In fact, the inscription talks of a merchant (sadhu) family. Thus the north of the Valkhā kingdom saw the continuous presence of the Guptas till Budhagupta’s reign around 496 CE.17 However, the last known Valkhā king Nāgabhaṭa was a contemporary of Skandagupta (c. 454–480 CE). To the south of the Valkhā realm lay the northern frontier of the Vākāṭaka kingdom (c. 300 CE–500 CE) embrac-ing the modern regions of central India and the northern Deccan. The Vākāṭakas first established themselves in the Vindhyan region, which included a large part of the Bundelkhand and Bagelkhand tracts. Then they extended southwards towards Deccan. There were parallel collateral branches, one founded by Sarvasena, at Vatsagulma or modern Wasim in Akola district, Maharashtra, the other led by Rudrasena I had its seat of power at Nandivardhana (Nagardhan/Nandardhan near Ramtek or Nandapur in Nagpur district of Maharashtra). Some of the major rivers delineating the landscape of the Vākāṭaka territory include Wardha, Narmada, Tapti, Godavari and their tributaries such as Purna, Dudna and the Wainganga. We have place names in epigraphs, such as, Bennātaṭa and Bennākaṭa, indicating their association with the river Wainganga (Bennā).18 This perhaps influenced the Valkhā realm and thus in their inscriptions we have such expressions as Narmmada-para-kule, Narmmada-dakshina-taṭe, Narmmada- Uttara-taṭe19 in the context of recording the location of the donated land proper-ties. The Narmada valley is not one continuous plain but is broken up into parts, separated by hills. North of the Narmada is the Dhar upland, a hilly and for-ested area. Bagh is located near Dhar. The donated villages perhaps also fall in the region of the Nimar plain that lies on both sides of the Narmada and Nimar upland, which is entirely south of the Narmada.20 The area is rich in mineral deposits. Thus it actually was a buffer zone between the two important monar-chical polities of the fourth and fifth centuries CE India with a strong forest and mineral resource base. Following B. Subbarao21 we can place the Valkhā kingdom in an area of relative isolation which was not environmentally unfavourable and
17 For political history of the Guptas see Ashvini Agrawal, Rise and Fall of the Imperial Guptas (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989).18 K.M. Shrimali, Agrarian Structure in Central India and the Northern Deccan (c.AD300–500) A Study of Vakataka Inscriptions (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1990) 10 and 64. For a history of the Vākāṭakas see Ajay Mitra Shastri, Vakaṭakas: Sources and History. Great Ages of Indian History (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 1997) and Hans Bakker, ed. The Vakaṭaka Heritage (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2004).19 Bagh CP, Inscription numbers I, III, XI, XIII, XIV, XV, XVIII, XIX, XXI and Appendix.20 R.L. Singh, India, A Regional Geography (New Delhi: National Geographical Society of India, 1992), 595.21 B. Subbarao, The Personality of India, Pre and Proto-Historic Foundation of India and Pakistan (Baroda: Mahārāja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 1958), 126.
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so the area displayed a pattern of survival and progress. Though not located on the main routes of communication, the region could be linked with arterial routes through narrow passageways. Some of the areas of donated villages, both on the north and south of the Narmada had concentration of Chalcolithic sites such as Mahesvar and Navdatoli22 which suggest a strong antecedent of village farming culture. The identifiable donated villages from the charters of the Valkhā kings can be located in the Narmada valley falling within 72°–80° longitude and 20°–24° latitude.23 Apart from Valkhā being the name of the kingdom, we have such terms as Valkhadhishṭhana24 in the grant of Bhulunda, year 50 (369/370 CE), and Valkha Vastavya25 in the grant of Svāmīdāsa, year 63 (382/383 CE). The use of the suffix adhishṭhana implies an administrative centre at Valkhā which therefore may have been the capital of the kingdom of the same name. Valkhadhisṭhana has been identified with present day Balkhar in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh by the editors of the charters. We have the famous archaeological site of Mahesvar26 (west Nimar) near Balkhar. Linkages between the Mahesvar area on the Narmada with regions on the Jamuna river was possible traversing the plateaus and then connecting with river Chambal. The area of the Narmada where Mahesvar lay on the north and Navdatoli on the south was one of the fording points. The emergence of the Valkhā kingdom around Mahesvar on the Narmada may underline the tradi-tional significance of this zone as a major crossing point of the Narmada.27 Being contiguous with the Gupta and the Vākāṭaka kingdoms, it is natural that the local chiefs were influenced by the monarchical political structure. Thus, these new rulers emerged in the history of what may have been a peripheral area of those times. They represented the appearance of local monarchies whose background is uncertain.
Romila Thapar had suggested that in the threshold period things are announced and they take a definite shape in later times.28 This is applicable to the Valkhā state which saw the beginning of land donations in the form of copper-plate charters in western central India which took a definite structure in the later period. Land donations are linked with agrarian expansion. This in turn is crucial to the emer-gence of state society. New areas were brought under the fold of cultivation and this changed the political economy of the region. There are many instances in Indian history where settlements were created after reclamation of forest tracts or marshy lands. It is evident that in case of Valkhā state formation was pos-sible because it had attained the technological level of settled agriculture. But the
22 R.K. Sharma and O.P. Misra, Archaeological Excavations in Central India (New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 2003), 85.23 Bagh CP, xxiii.24 Bagh CP, ‘Grant of Bhulunda, Year 50, Phalguna’, 6.25 Ibid., ‘Grant of Svāmidāsa, Year 63, Karttika’, 33.26 R.K. Sharma and O.P. Misra, op. cit., 126–28.27 Dilip K. Chakrabarti, The Geographical Orbits of Ancient India (New Delhi: Oxford, 2010), 164.28 Romila Thapar, Early India, From the Origins to AD 1300 (London: Penguin, 2002), 280–325.
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process needs to be studied. Surajit Sinha29 has shown that in a much later period internal development processes in the tribal belt took the form of aspirations to meet the Rajput model with corresponding adaptations. Whether the emergence of the Valkhā kingdom was also a part of the internal development of a pre-state polity with aspirations for monarchical state structure as seen in the neighbouring regions is a question to ponder upon. Thus through a reading of these charters we seek to understand the emergence and growth of the Valkhā state. With donations the donee assumes a significant position and so the nature of patronage of the Valkhā rulers would also be central to our study.
It is evident that this was the initial phase of the land grant charters in India. Therefore, it is natural that the structure of later land grants is not followed here. We know that rather than the early Gupta rulers, it was their contemporary Vākāṭakas and their subordinates who issued land grants. It is important to note that the earliest copper-plate charters written in Prakrit belonged to the Pallava kings of Kānchī and assignable to the middle of the fourth century CE.30 The first charter of Bhulunda was issued in the year 47 of the Gupta era which means c. 367 CE.31 Thus this was perhaps the earliest Sanskrit copper-plate charter issued by a local ruler. However, we do not have a long genealogy of the king, benedictory and imprecatory verses per se, and a record of the king’s prowess and conquest. What we do have is the name of the Brāhmana donee specifying his lineage (gotra) or in some cases the donation is made towards a religious estab-lishment, locational information of the village or land to be granted, prohibition of civil and military officials from entering the grant, and an affirmation that the grant was made as long as the moon, sun and the stars lasted (sasvatam-achandr-arkka-taraka-kalinena), that is, the grant is made in perpetuity. It should be noted that an almost similar expression sasvata-achandr-arkka-taraka-bhojye is found in the Damodarpur copper plate inscription of Kumāragupta I, year 124, that is, 444 CE.32 Incidentally Damodarpur is a village in west Dinajpur district in West Bengal and thus the record belongs to northern Bengal, far removed from the Valkhā area. However, the earliest example of the idea of perpetuity of a donation could be seen in the Nagarjuni Hill cave inscriptions of Dasaratha (c. 220 BCE) where the expression a-chandram-shuliyam (a-chandramah-sauryam)33 is used. Thus, the notion of permanence was always associated with donation whatever might have been the mode of expression.
29 Surajit Sinha, ‘State Formation and Rajput Myth in Tribal Central India’, in The State in India 1000–1700, ed. Hermann Kulke (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995), 334.30 D.C. Sircar, Indian Epigraphy (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996, reprint), 107.31 We prefer to take the charter issued by Bhulunda in the year 47, Pausha as his first issue though in another charter also dated in the year 47, Magha, it is recorded that it was written in the year 38 but was put down on the copper plate in the year 47. We would like to go by the date when the charter was issued on a copper plate.32 D.R. Bhandarkar, CII, vol. III, op. cit., 285.33 Sircar, Select Inscriptions, 77–78.
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It is significant to note that in these copper plates we have the term agrahara (agra + ahara), implying that the specific land was donated for the sustenance of the brahmanas, in lieu of the much familiar agrahara used in the later records. Consequently, the term agrahara evolved from agrahara which is unique to these copper plates only. Along with agrahara another term used is brahmadeya. It will be worthwhile to remember that the janapadanivesa section of the Arthasastra refers to the fact that the brahmanas were granted brahmadeya lands to be enjoyed hereditarily and these were exempted from all kinds of danda and kara (brahm- adeyanyadandakaranyabhirupadayakaniprayachchhet).34 Therefore, the expres-sion brahmadeya can be traced back to Arthasastra. Many of the charters mention concurrently Brahmadeya and Agrahara, for example, brahmadeyagrahara35 in a grant of Rudradāsa, year 69, the two terms being clearly differentiated in the later records. This again reinforces the idea that due to the early nature of the state-specific and concrete connotation of each term was not crystallized during the reign of the Valkhā rulers.
It is difficult to agree with the editors about the total absence of boundary markers as the key element suggesting the initial stage of land grants.36 Though we do not have any clear-cut demarcations, as evident in later grants, yet the perception of a fluid line in the form of either the river Narmada or any village or simply referring to the forest region or a forest deity (Vanavasini) as a bound-ary, is found in the charters. This suggests a concept of alienating the granted land from the other through a tangible marker and here the mention in one epi-graph of the term sima along with a marshy or wet land37 (for example, in the grant of Bhulunda, year 57, the expression Ulladana simayam…. saha mandala kachchhena brahmadeya) should also be taken note of. Gradually, in the later records of Rudradāsa in the year 67, we find that some concrete idea of boundary markers were evolving and thus it is stated that a field entrusted with the potter Āryyadāsa is situated in the south-western boundary of Dāsilakapallī. This in real-ity is a pointer to the embryonic character of the state as later examples of land grants with definite boundary markers may be seen as an attempt by the state at gradually organising the donated lands in such a way that there remained no chance for encroachment of any other plot by the donee. As a result, owner-ship or enjoyment of the donated land became more precise and secure and this was ensured by the state. To cite two examples: in about a little more than a 100 years from the grant of Svāmīdāsa, the Gunaighar (in Comilla area of south
34 Radha Govinda Basak (trans.), Kautiliya Arthasastra II, I (Calcutta: General Printers, 1964) (in Bengali), 26. I am thankful to Ranabir Chakravarti for drawing my attention to this early reference of brahmadeya.35 As an example we have the grant of Rudradāsa, year, 69, Asvayuja; Bagh CP, 48.36 Bagh CP, p. xii. The editors write, ‘The total absence of the mention of any boundaries of the gift-lands as also their measurements point to the initial stage of the system of land-grants in the region.’37 The word kachchha denotes any ground bordering on water or watery soil according to Monier-Williams Dictionary. See M. Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit–English Dictionary (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999) (Reprint), 242.
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eastern Bangladesh) grant of Vainyagupta (c. 507 CE) exhibits a serious attempt on the part of the ruler to precisely mention the boundaries of the donated lands.38 More stringent boundaries could be perceived in the records of the Pāla rulers of Kāmarupa (c. end of tenth or early eleventh century CE to twelfth century CE).39 The markers help to somewhat reconstruct the landscape of the rural settlements described in the charters and show how the boundary markers of the area can indicate a wide social cross section of people inhabiting a particular space.40 The total absence of land measurements, of course, points to the initial stage of the system of land grants in the region.
Moreover, unlike the format of the standard charters, no imprecatory verse is present but at the same time the rulers fear some kind of hindrance to the donee and so we have specific injunctions such as na vyahantavyam (grant of Bhulunda, year 59, l. 9) meaning the grant is not to be violated or transgressed,41 na vyasedhya (grant of Bhulunda, year 55, l. 9) implying no hindrance or pro-hibition to be caused to the donee42 and pratishedhashcha na karyah43 (grant of Bhulunda, year 50, l. 7) indicating that nothing should prevent the execution of the grant.44 Thus, these three terms used in three different charters of Bhulunda, are employed in the sense of a caution to any encroachers of the grants. We know that revenue rights were an important right bestowed on the Brāhmana recipients of royal land grants. None of the charters refer to any revenue term except one. The charter of Bhaṭṭāraka records the grant of a plot of land along with paddy fields in the village of Suhasahananaka in Asvassati pathaka to Brāhmana Revati Śarmman of Vatsya gotra along with Udranga (s-odranga), implying that the latter was a source of income. Incidentally this was the first use of this privilege in the land grants of India. There is much debate among scholars regarding the actual meaning of the term. The meaning ranged from the share of produce collected usually for the king, additional tax, tax on permanent tenants, to ground
38 D.C. Sircar, ‘Gunaighar Copper-Plate Inscription of Vainyagupta-Gupta Year 188 (507AD)’, Select Inscriptions Bearing on Indian History and Civilizations, vol. I (Delhi: V.K. Publishing House, 1993) reprint, 340–45. On the importance of boundary markers for understanding rural settlements, see B.D. Chattopadhyaya, ‘Some Aspects of Rural Settlements and Rural Society in Gupta and Post-Gupta Bengal’, in Aspects of Rural Settlements and Rural Society in Early Medieval India (Calcutta: Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, 1990), 18–69. Boundary specifications of Gunaighar record are discussed in the essay.39 The Pālas of Kāmarupa should not be confused with the Pālas of Bengal and Bihar though use of the Pāla name ending is significant. For their inscriptions, see M.M. Sharma, Inscriptions of Ancient Assam (Gauhati: Gauhati University Publications, 1978).40 Suchandra Ghosh, ‘Understanding Boundary Representations in the Copper-Plate Charters of Early Kāmarupa’, Indian Historical Review 41, no. 2 (2014), 207–22.41 M. Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit English Dictionary (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999) (Reprint), 1039.42 Ibid., 1039.43 Ibid., 671.44 Bagh CP, 29, 20, 5.
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rent and so on.45 In a recent study on Udranga46 it has been observed that grant of land together with Udranga was mostly confined to western India and Deccan. Reference to Udranga is not known in the inscriptions of Orissa and Assam. We have the mention of Udranga in a few grants from Bengal where it was used in the sense of a tax and a type of land.47 Normally in the later grants Udranga is always associated with another revenue term Uparikara which has been explained as additional taxes, minor taxes or tax paid by the temporary tenants.48 In a grant of Subandhu49 (c. 487 CE) from Bagh, Udranga is mentioned along with Uparikara. The absence of any mention of common tax names could be understood from the point of view that the rulers did not feel the necessity of separately men-tioning the normal taxes. Taxation had not developed into a well-defined system with a complex apparatus to ensure its regular flow. It was only in the case of introduction of an unknown tax that the necessity to record the name was felt.
We know that the royal order regarding the grant of a village or plot/plots of land was not always issued by the king himself, but was often conveyed through an intermediary often called dutaka (literally messenger, but here executor) who was generally a high officer, sometimes even a prince.50 In the case of these char-ters the presence of a dutaka is not very regular. Moreover, what is noteworthy is that in the early charters, the dutakas, wherever they were present, were officially either an arakshika (a police officer or the chief of the king’s bodyguards) or a pratihara (officer in charge of the defence of the palace or the city gates). Only in one grant of Nāgabhaṭa of the year 134 do we find a bhandagarika (officer in charge of the treasury or royal store house) as an executor (dutaka). What is significant is that the dutakas of the early copper plate charters were all secu-rity personnel and thereby the king’s trustworthies. Moreover their names are indicative of their autochthonous origin. So we have persons with names such as Gomika, Haṭaka, Addyakarnna, Varaha, etc., as dutakas. From the time of Mahārāja Rudradāsa51 (year 68, that is, 388 CE) there were other persons who acted as dutakas but they did not have any precise official designation. They had the honorific Bhaṭṭi added to their name, which became Sanskritized. Consequently, we now have as dutakas Bhaṭṭi Isvaradatta, Bhaṭṭi Rudradasa or simply Jayanatha. The addition of the title of respect Bhaṭṭi may suggest that brahmanas were given the post of dutaka. The irregular mention of dutaka suggests a kind of fluid administrative setup where the presence of an executor
45 D.C. Sircar, Indian Epigraphical Glossary (Varanasi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965), 349.46 Sayantani Pal and Subir Sarkar, ‘Udranga in Early Medieval Inscriptions of India vis-à-vis Bengal’. Paper presented at the Conference on Bengal Art. Ranchi, Unpublished paper, 2014.47 This was suggested by Pal and Sarkar in their unpublished paper entitled ‘Udranga in Early Medieval Inscriptions of India vis-à-vis Bengal’. See R.C. Majumdar, ‘Midnapore Plates of Sasanka, Year 19’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Letters, 11 (1945), 7–8.48 D.C. Sircar, Indian Epigraphical Glossary, 352.49 V.V. Mirashi, ‘Bagh Cave Plate of Subandhu’, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. Vol. IV, Part I (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1955), 19–21. 50 D.C. Sircar, Indian Epigraphical Glossary, 143.51 Bagh CP, 42.
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with respect to grant of lands/villages was not an essential requisite. Interestingly, the first plate of Bhulunda records the execution of the deed in the presence of five artisans (pañcha karukam cha samukham).52 Pañcha karukam could mean five groups of artisans, namely, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, brassmiths, carpenters and stone masons.53 It is said that the artisans were the descendants of the five sons of Visvakarma. The question that naturally comes to our mind is why was it important to mention the artisans as witnesses? Were the artisans an important social group whose witness merited record in an official document? Was it some-thing like pañchakula?54 That artisans were important in this region is evident. We have an entire village in the name of the lohakaras, that is, iron mongers and the lohakarapalli is referred to as a purva-bhujyamanaka, that is, the land was formerly under the enjoyment of Lohakarapallika in a grant of Svāmīdāsa, year 65 (384/85 CE).55 But after this instance, none of the records mention groups of artisans. Did the pañcha karu as an important socioeconomic group lose its rel-evance so as to merit complete silence in the later records? We have no answer.
The use of the expression bhujyamanaka (being enjoyed) is significant. In this grant of Mahārāja Svāmīdāsa one plot of land which was under the enjoy-ment of Lohakārapallikā was transferred to an individual brahmana called Matujja. We have such earlier cases also where Mahārāja Bhulunda, (year 54, c. 373/374 CE) granted villages which had been earlier brought under the enjoy-ment (purva-bhujyamanaka) of a donee, in this case god Bappa Pisāchadeva and then re-granted to the same deity with an exalted status of devagrahara. The term bhujyamanaka is not ubiquitous in the charters of early India and perhaps the ear-liest reference to this term has been found in the copper plates issued by Mahārāja Bhulunda. However, it needs to be mentioned here that the Yavatmal plates of the Vākāṭaka ruler Pravarasena II (year 26) renews an earlier grant of land which was already being enjoyed (purvva-bhujyamanika bhumih).56 The use of the term bhujyamanaka could also be seen much later in the second half of the seventh century CE in the Ashrafpur copper plate grants of Devakhadga belonging to the Khadga dynasty of south-eastern Bengal.57 Thus, it appears that ownership of the land was retained by the king and the right of enjoyment was transferred from one donee to the other.58 This also signifies different kinds of land relations.
52 Ibid., 2.53 Sircar, Indian Epigraphical Glossary, 230.54 Ibid., 230.55 Bagh CP, 37.56 K.M. Shrimali, Agrarian Structure in Central India and the Northern Deccan (c. AD 300–500) A Study of Vakaṭaka Inscriptions (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1990), 10, 64.57 G.M. Laskar, ‘Ashrafpur Copper-Plate Grants of Devakhadga’, Memoirs of The Asiatic Society of Bengal 1, no. 6 (1906): 85–91.58 This has been recently discussed by Ryosuke Furui in the context of Ashrafpur plates. Ryosuke Furui, ‘Agrarian Expansion and Local Power Relation in Seventh and Eighth Century East Bengal: A Study on Copper Plate Inscriptions’, in Urbanity and Economy: Pre-Modern Dynamics in Eastern India, ed. Ratnabali Chatterjee (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani, 2014), 101.
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Though in a nascent stage, the mention of various territorial divisions in the charters is quite remarkable. Consequently, we have rashṭra, bhukti, pathaka, avasa. Again for villages we have such name endings as padraka, gartta, anaka, vaṭaka, pallika and so on.59 Importantly, except for gartta all the name endings for villages are common to the Vākāṭaka records suggesting influence from the Vākāṭaka territory. Gartta (lowland), however, is representative of local flavour. The suffixes denoting rural settlements are more or less synonymous suggest-ing small village settlements. Though Palli is ordinarily taken to be a ‘tribal’60 village, it was not invariably such a settlement, as B.D. Chattopadhyaya argues.61 It could also mean a hamlet in the context of a peasant village. In the case of these charters, two references to Pallikā and one to Palli have been found but it is not possible to identify them either as a peasant village or a settlement of tribal people only on the basis of their names such as Palāsapalli, Lohakārapallikā and Dagdhapallikā. Lohakārapallikā was definitely a settlement of ironsmiths and as mentioned earlier, they were also in possession of land. With the penetration of the agrahara system of land donation resulting in settled agricultural practices, palli/pallikas would eventually be transformed into peasant villages or adminis-trative units. In one case Dasilakapalli is mentioned as a rashṭraka (Bhulunda, year 47) in one inscription and pathaka (Rudradāsa, year 67) in another, both being territorial units without any properly identified hierarchy. The fluidity of usage of administrative or land vocabulary from the Guptas and Vākāṭakas comes through when we come across such divisions which contain both the village name ending and the administrative name such as Udumbaragarttapathaka or two divi-sions together such as Navarashṭrakapathaka. So, it was possible to use any of the terms for denoting a territorial unit. This is a definite marker of early state where administrative divisions are not yet well-defined. Though other divisions are known, the editors feel that avasa/vasa occur for the first time as a territo-rial name suffix in our charters.62 The village names are quite interesting with pronounced references to flora, bird names and therefore are instructive of the environment of the granted land bearing a strong indigenous element. As examples
59 Bagh CP, xix, xx, xxi. The editors have given a list of territorial divisions and villages recorded in the charters.60 The term ‘tribal’ is not a happy expression and Shireen Ratnagar in an essay entitled ‘Who Are the Tribals?’ has given a very clear definition of a ‘tribe’. According to her ‘a tribe is not just a group of people that shares a common culture, a name, an ethnic identity and a language/dialect: more important, its members believe they are one people because they trace their origins to a common ancestor—tribal societies by and large have not developed economic systems that require writing. They have no formally constituted institutions of governance or administration. Following her defini-tion it is difficult to designate Valkhā kingdom as essentially tribal as its first ruler Bhulunda, though with a non-Sanskritic name, was quite adept in administrative usage and Brahmanical rituals. For the sake of convenience we shall use the term tribal to differentiate between people and places with Sanskritic and non-Sanskritic names. See Shireen Ratnagar, ‘Who Are the Tribals?’, One India One People, November (2000), 6–7.61 B.D. Chattopadhyaya, Aspects of Rural Settlements and Rural Society in Early Medieval India (Calcutta: Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, 1990), 2–3.62 Ibid., xxi.
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we have Salmalipadraka, Palasapalli, Kharjurika, Nimbapadraka, Pippalojjhara, Arjunapanktika, etc., related to flora and Kokilavasaka and Kukkutananka based on bird names. As a conjectural piece of evidence it may be suggested that there was some physical basis to these names and the landscape of these villages was dominated by the flora that their names indicate. Thus, Salmalipadraka at one point of time must have been strewn with silk cotton trees which were also economically viable. The landscape of the kingdom as understood from a study of these charters could have boasted of woods.
A look at the nature of donation by these rulers indicates that during the reign of Bhulunda, the first ruler, most of the grants known as devagrahara were donated for the services of the gods and goddesses, that is, temple rituals.63 That the temples were already active is clear from the fact that the charters speak of persons related to temple as deva-karmantika (a temple officer), deva-paricharaka (commonly servant of the temple, perhaps personnel who look after the temple), deva-prasadaka (perhaps meaning one who sustains himself through the favour of the god, in other words an official in the temple), deva-karmina (an officer in charge of the affairs of the temple or a temple priest) and devakiya-karshaka (cultivators associated with temple lands). These are of special significance in the context of the role of religious establishments in undertaking agricultural produc-tion.64 The mention of these officials/personnel related to temples with varying designations perhaps indicates the beginning of a temple organization in the region. The purpose of these grants was always the performance of Bali, Charu and Satra rites and providing perfume, incense and garlands (gandha-dhupa-malyopayogadishu) to these temples. A reading of the inscriptions would show that during the reign of Mahārāja Bhulunda (c. 367CE–c. 379 CE) three temples refer to Nārāyana, four to the autochthonous deity Bappa Pisāchadeva, two temples to mother goddesses (Bhagavatinam) also called mahamatrinam in the same plate (Great mothers) (Bhulunda, year 50) and one to God Mahasenadeva. Regarding these gods and goddesses a few points could be noticed. Mahārāja Bhulunda refers to himself as the devotee of Narayana and he also installed the temple of Narayanadeva at Valkhā adhishthana, that is, the capital city. Consequently, his personal association with Narayana is established. It is noteworthy that in the first inscription of Bhulunda dated Gupta year 47 (CE 366–67) and even in the others a long account of Vishnu and his incarnations are given.65 According to Michael Willis this explains the relationship of subordinate kings to the Vaishnava cult of the Gupta court.66 With respect to the mother goddesses we find that in the first instance he established ‘Great Mothers’ at a place called Navataṭaka. Accord- ing to B.D. Chattopadhyaya the prefix Maha’ indirectly refers to the exalted
63 Bagh CP, Inscriptions numbering I–XV deal with donation to temples for temple rituals.64 K.M. Shrimali, ‘Some Aspects of Land Relations in Central India (c. AD 350 to c. AD 450)’, in Historical Diversities, Society, Politics & Culture (Essays for Professor V.N. Datta), ed. K.L. Tuteja and Sunita Pathania (New Delhi: Manohar, 2008), 25–34.65 Bagh CP, ‘Grant of Bhulunda, Year 47, Pausha’, 1.66 Michael Willis, The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual, Temples and the Establishment of Gods (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 94.
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status of the goddesses which justifies their receiving royal patronage.67 Perhaps Chattopadhyaya is justified as another grant given to the devakula68 (temple) of mother goddesses, established by Pasupatacharyya Bhagavat Lokodadhi and not the Maharaja himself, so the prefix ‘Maha’ is missing. In the case of Lord Mahasenadeva (Svami) also, the term used is asmabhih pratishṭhapitaka, that is, in this case also the temple is established by the Maharaja. That the ‘new raja’ was not associated with the indigenous deity Bappa Pisachadeva is evident from the fact that three of the grants (years 51, 54 and 57) to this deity were given by Bhulunda, only at the request of Bhojika Bhaṭṭa Bandhula who established the temple of Pisachadeva at the capital city of Valkhā. At the request of Bhojika Bhaṭṭa Bandhula, they were given the status of devagrahara,69 which implied many facilities, and the elevation of a local deity to the status of other deities of the brahmanical pantheon with the usual rites and rituals. This may seem to be what Chattopadhyaya calls the ‘brahmanical mode of appropriation’.70 Moreover, the establishment of a temple by a lady is also rare. Pisacha relates to an evil spirit. Perhaps by worshipping the lord of Pisachas, here Bappa perhaps meant father or lord, that is, Valkhā was being protected from the malevolent eye. Patronage legitimised power and helped the emergence of a stratum of ruling elites, more importantly in this case a woman. Another grant of Maharaja Bhulunda, year 59, donated at the request of one Innapāda also talks about the installation of Bappa Pisachadeva not in Valkhā but in a vishaya called Narmmadapara- para (Narmmadaparapara-vishaye iha-aiva pratishthapitaka-svami-Bappa Pisachadeva). We have no idea where this vishaya could be located but the inter-esting fact is that the vishaya is named after the river Narmada. What is worth noting is that an erstwhile brahmadeya-kshetra of the village Garjanānaka, was granted to the god.
It is significant to note that the choice of the other deities such as Matrika and Kartikeya was perhaps not random but thoughtfully selected. A later grant of the Chālukyas, the Amudalapadu plates of Vikramaditya I, dated around 660 CE shows that these gods had some specific roles within the royal cult, variously
67 Chattopadhyaya, ‘Reappearance’ of the Goddess or the Brahmanical Mode of Appropriation: Some Early Epigraphic Evidence Bearing on Goddess Cults’, Studying Early India (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003), 176–77.68 Devakulas are generally taken to be temples quite distinct from the Kushāna period Devakula at Mat near Mathura which was a dynastic shrine meant for worshipping the deities whom the Kushāna kings venerated and was also a temple of the kings themselves. The Māṭ shrine near Mathura was excavated in 1911–12 by Rai Bahadur Pandit Radha Krishna. It is called a devakula according to an inscription of the year 28 of the time of Huvishka. See Sten Konow, ‘Maṭhura Brāhmī Inscription of the year 28’, Epigraphia Indica, XXI, 60–66. Gerard Fussman, ‘The Māṭ devakula: A New Approach to its Understanding’, in Maṭhura, the Cultural Heritage, ed. Doris Meth Srinivasan (New Delhi: Manohar, 1989), 198.69 It is important to note that in the grant dated year 54, month of Vaisakha, the two villages which were granted the enjoyment (purvva-bhujyamanakam) of Bappa Pisachadeva were now getting them as devagraharas.70 B.D. Chattopadhyaya, ‘Reappearance’ of the Goddess or the Brahmanical Mode of Appropriation (Delhi: Studying Early India, Permanent Black, 2003), 182–83.
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augmenting the favour, prosperity and power of the royal family. The record begins with an account of how the founders of the Chālukya dynasty increased in favour through the grace of the Sapta Matrika (seven mothers), obtained pros-perity through the protection of Karttikeya, and overpowered enemies by the very sight of the Varaha emblem that the Chālukyas acquired by the grace of Narayana.71
(saptamatribhirbhivarddhitanam karttikeyaparirakshanapraptakalyanaparamparanam bhagavatnarayanaprasadasamasadita varahalanchhanekshankshanavasikritasesham- ahibhritam).
Holding centre stage was Narayana, the god by whose grace the kings enjoyed power. For example Mahārāja Bhulunda, too, as his first record reads, was the dasa of Narayana, his Svami. Another significant aspect of these grants to tem-ples demands our attention. In most of the cases the Pasupatas are said to be attached to these temples. We know that the Pasupatas were a Śaivite sect. But here they are present in the context of the temple of Narayana, as well as Bappa Pisachadeva. Pasupata was one of the earliest Saiva sects prevalent in India and its popularity in western India is well known.72 Their presence here implies that sectarian differences did not surface in these areas during the fourth century CE and hence they are present in a Vaishnava context. The centrality of Lord Nārāyana in the kingdom of Mahārāja Bhulunda, is thus beyond question. Though it was just the beginning of cult formation in the region yet it seems that Nārāyana surpassed the local god Bappa Pisāchadeva because of the ruler’s association with him. The king as the patron was instrumental in giving centrality to the cult of Nārāyana and not otherwise. Unlike in Orissa the dominant autochthonous deity was not the tutelary deity of the Valkhā kingdom.73
The installation of these images/temples required regular services, which in turn demanded resources which came from grants of villages and lands. In all the cases we have a combination of bali, charu and satra, which was a part of the pañchamahayajña, and offerings of sandal paste, incense, flowers and garlands which formed a part of the ritual of worship. It is difficult to understand its impli-cation in a temple setting. The puja and the yajña were entwined with the services required for deities in the form of temple servants (devakarmins) and members of other sects. It has recently been shown by Willis that when these three are mentioned in a puja context, they are not simply parts of the pañchamahayajña. According to him bali, charu and satra ‘were a discrete and well ordered triad,
71 Shrinivas V. Padigar, ed. ‘Amudalapadu Plates of Vikramaditya I’, Inscriptions of the Calukyas of Badami (Bangalore: ICHR, Southern Regional Centre, 2010), 67–68. Also see Willis, op. cit., 95.72 Jash Pranabananda, History of Saivism (Calcutta: Roy and Chaudhuri, 1974), 44.73 Hermann Kulke, ‘Royal Temple Policy and the Structure of Medieval Hindu Kingdoms’, in Kings and Cults, State Formation and Legitimation in India and Southeast Asia (Delhi: Manohar, 1993), 6. Kulke has shown that in the case of Orissa, the Hinduized chiefs or Hindu Rajas accepted the dominant autochthonous deities of their territories as family and tutelary deities of their princi- palities as they were highly dependent on the support and loyalty of the tribes.
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quite separate from other types of offerings. Priests have carefully and deliber-ately moved sacrifices from the domestic environment to the temple and attracted funding to support these rites in a new location.’74 Satra activities took place at the temple, they were understood to be part of the pujā of the deity and that the charitable provision involved clothing as well as food. It is true that epigraphic evidence shows that in the beginning this concept was associated with Narayana. Thus, from c. 367 CE to c. 379 CE temples in the Valkhā kingdom received considerable patronage.75 One must remember that this was the beginning of temple-building activity in north India.
Now let us turn our attention to copper-plate charters of other rulers. What is surprising is that from about the time of the next ruler Svāmidāsa whose earliest grant dates to c. 383 CE till the time of Nāgabhaṭa (c. 454 CE) none of the charters donate land to any temple. Did the temples lose relevance to the succeeding rulers? Perhaps not, as the beneficiaries of the grants are all brahmanas and among the brahmanas a large chunk were probably priests. They were surely offering pujā to the deities. But here the kings chose the brahmanas as they could realize that giving grants to a temple meant the prosperity of the institution of temple whereas giving grants to individual or groups of brahmanas meant elevation of an individual or a group from a simple purohita to a land holder in some cases to a landed group. Consequently, there is a prominent visibility of the brahmanas in the form of land grants. Brahmana donees were introduced to the village popu-lation through these grants. This was done as the ‘new political elites’ needed legitimation and this benefited the brahmanas. Kulke has shown that regional kingdoms systematically settled Brāhmanas near the political centres of the kingdom towards the end of the first millennium CE and these brahmanas acted as ideological and administrative specialists.76 This process began in the Valkhā kingdom in the middle of the first millennium CE when brahmanas were entrusted with the task of a dutaka. The rural landscape underwent changes. Brahmanas emerged as the dominant caste group in the brahmadeya villages. Plots of lands which were originally entrusted to non-brahmanas, such as, potters, merchants or belonging to a village of the iron mongers (lohakarapalli), were given to the brahmanas. Thus, we have evidence of individual ownership of land by occu-pational groups other than the brahmanas. From the charters it is not possible to discern whether these people were in possession of land before the rise of the Valkhā state but it could be categorically said that in about fifth or early sixth cen-turies CE, increasing evidence of individual ownership from other areas could be inferred from the copper plates in the form of boundaries of a given piece of land. A classic case could be the Gunaighar (near Comilla in Bangladesh) copper plates of Vainyagupta issued in the Gupta year 188 (507 CE) where we have reference
74 Willis, The Formation of Temple Ritual in the Gupta Period: Puja and Panchamahayajna, 76.75 See Appendix, Table A1 for the donations of Mahārāja Bhulunda.76 Hermann Kulke, 11–12.
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to a large number of privately owned plots.77 However, gifts of villages to the brahmanas led to a significant proliferation of brahmanical settlements. That new settlements were coming up is evident from the names of places as navataṭaka and navarashṭraka. Moreover there was a migration of brahmanas too. Though in these charters we have no reference to large-scale migration from other places but we have numerous references to a group called Aryya Chaturvaidyapadas, that is, proficient in four Vedas, who resided at Valkhā and were given villages on both sides of the Narmada. This group of brahmanas became wealthy and with the possession of so many villages turned into landed elite. To make use of their newly found wealth, they must have moved to new locations. In another instance it is said that a group of brahmanas which was already a part of another agrahara was now given the habitation site of a village as per brahmadeya norms. So they moved from their original habitation to this one. As the group of brahmanas was large, the establishment of the habitation site implied the termination of cultivation from large tracts of land. The expression used is krishṭavasannaka- grama-dhana and this is the meaning given to the term by the editors.78 If it was indeed so, then it is rather surprising that cultivable lands were converted to sites for habitation at a landscape that did not boast of a fertile topography. Consequently, here is a case where even at the cost of losing agrarian resources the rulers felt the desperate need of establishing a brahmanical settlement. K.M. Shrimali,79 however, has given an alternative reading to the term. According to him ‘it would perhaps be more appropriate to read the concerned term as avasana rather than avasannaka, which would mean a dwelling or living on the boundar-ies of a village’. The problem however is that a close look at the inscription itself would show that the term is avasannaka and not avasana.80
We might divide the plates into two phases; a single king Bhulunda domi-nates the first phase where the religious context of the charters becomes important. We notice a symbiotic relation between the different sects of Puranic
77 In the Gunaighar copper plates we find that the first plot consisting of seven paṭakas and nine dronavapas lay between the limits of gunakagrahara and the kshetra (cultivated plot) of the varddhaki (carpenter) Vishnu in the east, fields belonging to the royal monastery and to Miduvilala (mechanic), fields belonging to three persons in the west (their professions not mentioned) and fields belonging to several individuals and a tank belonging to a person of the Dosi community to its north. The second portion measured 28 dronavapas of land and thus was a much smaller unit. Its four boundary markers were the village of Gunikagrahara to the east, plot belonging to Pakka vilāla in the west, to the south plot belonging to the raja vihara and, to the north, a plot belonging to a person perhaps of a vaidya caste. In the third segment which measured twenty-three dronavapas, all bordering plots belonged to individuals. Names such as Jalari or Nagi-Joudaka could be read. The fourth segment also refers to individual land holders and it measured thirty dronavapas. The plot of Buddhaka was in the east, that of Kalaka in the south, Surya in the west and Mahipāla in the north. The fifth plot which measured a couple of paṭakas less than a quarter had the following boundaries, to the east, the khandaviduggurika kshetra to the south, the field of Manibhadra to the west the field of Yajnarāta and to the north the village of Nada-udaka.78 Bagh CP, xviii.79 Shrimali, op. cit., 26.80 See Appendix, Table A2 for donation to brahmanas.
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brahmanism. Thus, the Pasupatas, Pasupatacharyas, Bhagavachchhishṭas, Mantraganacharyas figure together in the charters.81 Perhaps the new political elite were trying to grapple with a contemporary situation where transformation from Vedic brahmanism to the sectarian pluralism of the period was in the making. We have seen that recording donations on a copper plate was at an experimental stage. In the second phase we have a set of four rulers who were aware of the virtues of Bhumi dana, especially to brahmanas. There was perhaps a change in the belief system, where temple donation was relegated to the background and dona-tion to brahmanas became primarily important. The term belief is not taken here in the sense of religion or faith but it means the belief in the method of procuring political supremacy. In the case of Bhulunda, temple donation meant a place in the brahmanical monarchical system following his overlord the paramabhaṭṭaraka, identified with the Gupta monarch where similarity in religious ideology with the lord would give him a firm footing in his newly acquired territory. On the other hand, for Bhulunda successors, the Valkhā kingdom was already created and the need of the hour was to make the brāhmanas, the highest social group as well as increase the resource base through agrarian expansion.
Though nearby, Bagh as a Buddhist site looms large from about the middle of the fifth century CE; however, in the inscriptions, we have no indication of any kind of presence or patronage to any Buddhist establishment. Along with the Brahmanical gods and goddesses, worship of dominant autochthonous deity in the form of Bappa Pisachadeva could be seen. The sectarian elements were not predominant and there was no incompatibility between local cult and brahmanical sacred centres. The shift in patronage from temples to brahmanas exhibits early forms of political–social transformation. The actual administrative structures inevitably contained the carry-overs of the Gupta and Vākāṭaka administrative systems. An attempt to introduce terminologies related to administration of land used by the two dynasties could be seen. In fact several administrative terms have a distinct connection with the terminologies found in the Vākāṭaka records, this again speaks of patronage to brahmanas. In the choice of language for the grants they followed the Gupta tradition, thereby indicating a north Indian orientation. The use of the Gupta era speaks of the possible penetration of the Gupta power and cultural matrix in this area, without however leading to a direct incorporation of this area in the Gupta realm.
It appears from a reading of all the charters that this newly emerged local polity did not seek validation through linkage with a respectable ancestry though it was in a state society stage. This is exceptional as various studies on political processes have shown that the creation of genealogies or establishing linkages
81 Suchandra Ghosh, ‘The Valkhā Kingdom: A Religio-economic Study (4th–5th Centuries C.E.)’, in Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the ‘European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art’, Vol. 2: Contextualizing Material Culture in South and Central Asia in Pre-Modern Times, ed. Verena Widorn and Ute Franke (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming).
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Ghosh 19
with mythical rulers was the common trend of new political powers.82 The Valkhā state was evolving and we have gradual visibility of the brahmanical norms. The evolving character of the state is also evident from the gradually discernible presence of state officials in the charters. Strengthening central power and increas-ing the number of appointed functionaries, which means a gradual process of bureaucratization, is characteristic of all early states. Agrahāra as an institution became an agency of the ruler which could be used for legitimacy. The study of the charters suggest that it is not possible to posit the Valkhā state in any one of the much accepted three types of the early state as suggested by Claessen and Skalnik. The Valkhā state was truly a combination of a typical early state and an early state judged to be transitional. While we have little mention of trade and markets, state ownership of lands was gaining ground. Therefore, we have the enjoyer of lands who could be easily displaced from his possession with his right of enjoy-ment transferred. Though specific punishment is not mentioned yet caution is pronounced regarding any kind of hindrance to the donee or in the execution of the grant. The most ubiquitous feature of the early state is the emergence of a two-class system of the ruler and the ruled. Here, through the prism of copper-plate charters, we perceive a three-tier system, where the king is the apex political authority, then we have a set of people who are known as bhujyamanaka (enjoyer of the land), usually brahmanas and then the peasants and other social groups. A new set of temple officials were created whose designations are instructive of two functions—service and favour. Thus, we have persons working in and for the temple who are known as deva karmin, deva paricharaka, deva prasadaka and so on. The Valkhā state was in the process of articulation of the modes and norms for granting lands. So, the grants are stated to have been made as per the krama (custom, rule sanctioned by tradition) or nyaya (a general or universal model) evolved for the purpose and the stipulations are of an appropriate nature (uchitaya). This demonstrates that there were customs and usages which derived their validity as much from the recognition accorded by the existing political author-ity as from the force of practice coming from the past. The early state of Valkhā grew out of its own internal dynamics and aspirations for monarchical political structure acted as an added incentive for the rise of the early state of Valkhā.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer of this article for the insightful comments that have served to improve vastly the quality of the manu-script. I am grateful to the Fondation Sciences de l’Homme, Paris for providing me with a short visiting fellowship in July, 2014 to work in their library. My thanks go to my student Devkumar Jhanjh for carefully putting in the diacritical marks in the two charts accompanying the article.
82 Kulke, Royal Temple Policy and the Structure of Medieval Hindu Kingdoms, 1–16.
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Ap
pen
dix
Tab
le A
1. D
onat
ions
of M
ahar
aja
Bhul
un.d .
a
No.
Nam
e of
Insc
ript
ions
Don
orPl
ace
of
Issu
eD
onee
Loca
tion
Oth
er In
form
atio
n
1.G
rant
of B
hulu
n .d.a
, ye
ar 4
7, m
onth
of
Paus
ha, e
ight
h da
y
of d
ark
fort
nigh
t(3
20+
47=
367
GE)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Lord
Nar
ayan
.aFi
ve v
illag
es o
n th
e so
uthe
rn b
ank
of t
he r
iver
N
arm
mad
a, U
kkar
ıpad
raka
, D
ubho
dika
, Bhe
t .-
unka
lika,
saj
jarh
rada
ka a
long
w
ith t
he w
ater
res
ervo
ir
calle
d V
ibhı
taka
pan
ıyak
a
and
Kar
mm
anta
For
the
perf
orm
ance
of
bali,
cha
ru a
nd s
atra
.T
he d
eed
was
exe
cute
d in
th
e pr
esen
ce o
f fiv
e ar
tisan
s (p
anch
a-ka
ruka
)
2.G
rant
of B
hulu
n .d.a
, ye
ar 5
0, m
onth
of
Cha
itra,
ele
vent
h da
y of
dar
k fo
rtni
ght
(320
+50
= 3
70G
E)
Bhul
un.d .
aV
alkh
aM
ulas
arm
ma
and
Bh
uta-
bhoj
aka
who
w
ere
actu
ally
dep
ende
nt
of t
he t
empl
e
Vill
age
Dub
hodi
ka w
ith
Mul
asar
mm
a an
d vi
llage
D
harm
man .
aka
and
a pl
ot o
f la
nd in
the
Arj
unap
ankt
ika
with
Bhu
ta-b
hoja
ka
For
the
perf
orm
ance
of
bali,
cha
ru a
nd s
atra
and
in
prov
idin
g fo
r sa
ndal
pas
te,
ince
nse
and
garl
ands
for
the
mot
her
godd
esse
s (B
haga
vatı
, mat
r .ina
m)
inst
alle
d at
nav
atat .
aka
Tho
ugh
ther
e is
no
impr
ecat
ory
vers
e bu
t it
is m
entio
ned
that
no
hind
ranc
e sh
ould
be
caus
ed
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(Tab
le A
1 co
ntin
ued)
3.G
rant
of B
hulu
n .d.a
, ye
ar 5
0, m
onth
of
phal
guna
, in
the
fifth
da
y of
the
bri
ght
fort
nigh
t(3
20+
50=
370
GE)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edid
ates
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Lord
Nar
ayan
.a d
eva
ie.
The
tem
ple
of N
aray
an.-
ad
eva,
inst
alle
d at
Val
kha
adhi
s .t .ha
na (
capi
tal)
Vill
age
of P
ippa
lojjh
ara
on
the
fart
her
bank
of
the
Nar
mm
ada
Obj
ect
of t
he g
rant
was
th
e pe
rfor
man
ce o
f bal
i, ch
aru
and
satr
a ri
tes.
It
was
furt
her
stat
ed t
hat
the
tem
ple
culti
vato
rs,
the
Pasu
pata
s, t
he A
ryya
-C
hoks
has
and
the
tem
ple
serv
ants
sho
uld
be
perm
itted
tod
o of
bal
i, ch
aru
and
satr
a an
d pr
ovid
e sa
ndal
pas
te, i
ncen
se a
nd
garl
ands
. The
tem
ple
is
of N
aray
an.a
but
we
have
re
fere
nce
to S
aiva
sec
t.
4.G
rant
of B
hulu
n .d.a
, ye
ar 5
1, m
onth
of
Ash
a d .ha
in t
he
seco
nd d
ay o
f the
da
rk fo
rtni
ght
(320
+51
= 3
71G
E)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Lord
Nar
ayan
.aT
hree
plo
ts o
f lan
d en
trus
ted
with
/enj
oyed
by
Mah
esva
ra, N
anda
pala
an
d N
andi
. Plo
ts w
ere
in
the
villa
ge o
f Am
bilik
apad
ra
(a v
illag
e) a
nd a
lso
a pl
ot
of w
aste
land
(kh
ila)
to
the
wes
t as
per
the
rul
es
gove
rnin
g de
vagr
ahar
a gr
ants
.
For
the
perf
orm
ance
of
bali,
cha
ru a
nd s
atra
and
in
prov
idin
g fo
r sa
ndal
pas
te,
ince
nse,
flow
ers
an
d ga
rlan
ds.
Tem
ple
serv
ants
incl
ude
culti
vato
rs w
ho c
ultiv
ate
an
d so
w s
eeds
.
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5.G
rant
of B
hulu
n .d.a
, ye
ar 5
4, m
onth
of
vais
akha
in t
he t
hird
da
y of
the
bri
ght
fort
nigh
t(3
20+
54=
374
GE)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edid
ates
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
a rak
a
Val
kha
Bapp
a-pi
sach
adev
a
inst
alle
d at
Val
kha
by
Bho
jika
Hal
f of t
he v
illag
e of
V
ibhı
taka
gart
ta w
hich
w
as e
arlie
r en
joye
d
by t
he s
ame
deity
The
vill
ages
wer
e al
read
y in
the
pos
sess
ion
of t
he
sam
e go
d bu
t no
w t
hese
ha
ve b
een
give
n th
e st
atus
of a
dev
agra
hara
fo
r th
e pe
rfor
man
ce o
f ba
li, c
haru
and
sat
ra a
nd
in p
rovi
ding
for
sand
al
past
e, in
cens
e, fl
ower
s an
d ga
rlan
ds e
xecu
tor
was
the
Gom
ika,
Tem
ple
serv
ants
and
Pas
upat
as
wer
e al
low
ed t
o cu
ltiva
te.
To
be a
dmin
iste
red
by t
he
devo
tees
of B
haga
vat
6.G
rant
of B
hulu
n .d.a
, ye
ar 5
4, m
onth
of
vais
akha
in t
he fo
urth
da
y of
the
bri
ght
fort
nigh
t(3
20+
54=
374
GE)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edid
ates
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Bapp
a-pi
sach
a de
va
inst
alle
d at
V
alkh
a by
Bh
ojik
a
Val
kha
Dev
agra
hara
and
G
avay
apan
ıyak
a si
tuat
ed
in U– ri
ka-r
asht
.ra
give
n
at t
he r
eque
st o
f Bh
ojik
a-bh
at .t .a
Ba
ndhu
la
The
vill
ages
wer
e al
read
y in
the
pos
sess
ion
of t
he
sam
e go
d bu
t no
w t
hese
ha
ve b
een
give
n th
e st
atus
of a
dev
agra
hara
fo
r th
e pe
rfor
man
ce o
f ba
li, c
haru
and
sat
ra a
nd
in p
rovi
ding
for
sand
al
past
e, in
cens
e, fl
ower
s an
d ga
rlan
ds e
xecu
tor
was
the
Gom
ika,
Tem
ple
serv
ants
and
Pas
upat
as
wer
e al
low
ed t
o cu
ltiva
te.
New
add
ition
- T
his
gran
t is
to
be
adm
inis
tere
d by
the
go
od d
evot
ees
of B
haga
vat
(Nar
ayan
.a)
(Tab
le A
1 co
ntin
ued)
No.
Nam
e of
Insc
ript
ions
Don
orPl
ace
of
Issu
eD
onee
Loca
tion
Oth
er In
form
atio
n
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7.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a,
year
54,
mon
th o
f M
agha
in t
he t
enth
da
y of
the
bri
ght
fort
nigh
t(3
20+
54=
374
GE)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edid
ates
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Jaya
vard
hana
, the
son
of
Bha
t .t .i-D
a ma
of
Har
ita-s
agot
ra.
Plot
of l
and
and
a ho
use
entr
uste
d w
ith In
dras
ena
in
the
villa
ge S
alm
alıp
adra
ka. I
t is
a b
rahm
adey
a gr
ant
Brah
mad
eya
give
n fo
r en
joym
ent
of t
he d
onee
. Sh
ift in
the
nat
ure-
not
give
n to
any
god
or
tem
ple.
To
be
enjo
yed
by s
ons,
gra
ndso
ns
and
so o
n.
8.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a,
year
55,
mon
th
of Jy
esht
.ha
in t
he
seve
nth
day
of t
he
brig
ht fo
rtni
ght,
ye
ar 5
6(3
20+
55=
375
/376
GE)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edid
ates
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
a rak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a D
akka
nna
of
Bha
radv
aja-
sago
tra
(cou
ld b
e fr
om D
ecca
n)
Vill
age
Gho
saka
padr
aka.
G
rant
was
forg
ed a
nd h
ad t
o be
rew
ritt
en in
the
yea
r 56
Brah
mad
eya-
kula
grah
ara—
a
bhag
am, (
not
to b
e pa
rtiti
oned
).
9.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a,
year
55,
mon
th o
f Sr
avan
.a in
the
firs
t da
y of
the
bri
ght
fort
nigh
t,(3
20+
55=
375
/GE)
Bhul
un.d .
aw
ho m
edid
ates
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
God
Mah
asen
adev
aW
ho w
as in
stal
led
by
the
kin
g
Thr
ee v
illag
es o
f Bhe
rava
t .ak
a, B
et.t .
apah
aka
and
Puka
ga
situ
ated
in D
urdd
ukav
asa
alon
g w
ith t
he c
hari
ka
(per
haps
pas
ture
land
) ca
lled
Kot
.t .um
anak
a as
per
nor
ms
of d
evag
raha
ra
for
the
perf
orm
ance
of
bali,
cha
ru a
nd s
attr
a an
d in
pro
vidi
ng fo
r sa
ndal
pa
ste,
ince
nse,
flow
ers
and
garl
ands
. Man
trag
an .ac
hary
a,
Tem
ple
serv
ants
and
Pa
supa
tas
wer
e al
low
ed t
o en
joy,
cul
tivat
e an
d in
habi
t th
ese
thre
e vi
llage
s.
10.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a,
year
56,
mon
th
of A
svay
uja
in t
he
thir
teen
th d
ay o
f the
br
ight
fort
nigh
t,(3
20+
56=
376
/GE)
Bhul
un.d .
a
who
med
idat
es
at t
he fe
et o
f Pa
ram
abha
t .t .ar
aka
Val
kha
Tem
ple
(dev
akul
a)
of m
othe
r go
ddes
ses
(mat
rist
hana
) in
the
vill
age
of P
inch
hika
naka
by
the
Pasu
pata
char
ya B
haga
vat
Loko
dadh
i
The
vill
age
of
Pinc
hchh
ikan
aka
itsel
f alo
ng
with
the
mar
shy
gard
en la
nd
of b
hadr
adat
tava
t .aka
gram
a as
per
dev
agra
hara
for
the
perf
orm
ance
of
bali,
cha
ru a
nd s
atra
and
in
pro
vidi
ng fo
r sa
ndal
pa
ste,
ince
nse,
flow
ers
and
garl
ands
. Tem
ple
serv
ants
an
d Pa
supa
tas
wer
e al
low
ed
(Tab
le A
1 co
ntin
ued)
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11.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a,
year
57,
mon
th o
f C
haitr
a in
sec
ond
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght,
(320
+57
= 3
77G
E)
Bhul
un.d .
a
who
med
idat
es
at t
he fe
et o
f Pa
ram
abha
t .t .ar
aka
Val
kha
Ary
ya-C
hatu
rvai
dyas
be
long
ing
to v
ario
us
gotr
as a
nd c
hara
n .as
and
perf
orm
ing
vari
ous
vow
s,
aust
eriti
es a
nd s
tudy
ing
thei
r re
spec
tive
Ved
as
Brah
mad
eya
Vill
age
Nim
bapa
drak
a in
the
Ba
ppab
hat .t .
i bhu
kti o
n th
e so
uthe
rn b
ank
of t
he r
iver
N
arm
mad
a (B
hukt
i for
the
fir
st t
ime)
Vill
age
has
been
gra
nted
fo
r en
joym
ent.
12.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a,
year
57,
mon
th
of P
halg
una
in t
he
thir
teen
th d
ay o
f the
da
rk fo
rtni
ght,
(320
+57
= 3
77G
E)
Bhul
un.d .
a
who
med
idat
es
at t
he fe
et o
f Pa
ram
abha
t .t .ar
aka
Val
kha
God
Bap
pa-P
isac
hade
vaV
illag
e of
Kod
rava
talla
ka
at t
he r
eque
st o
f Jay
a, t
he
mes
seng
er o
f Bho
jika-
bhat .
t .a
Band
hula
who
had
inst
alle
d th
e de
ity a
t V
alkh
a its
elf
For
the
perf
orm
ance
of
bali,
cha
ru a
nd s
atra
and
in
pro
vidi
ng fo
r sa
ndal
pa
ste,
ince
nse,
flow
ers
and
garl
ands
Bha
gava
chch
hish
t .as
Tem
ple
serv
ants
and
Pa
supa
tas
wer
e al
low
ed
to e
njoy
, cul
tivat
e an
d in
habi
t th
ese
thre
e vi
llage
s.
(Dev
akul
asri
ta)
13.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a,
year
59
the
thir
teen
th
day
of t
he d
ark
fort
nigh
t,(3
20+
59=
379
GE)
Bhul
un.d .
a
who
med
idat
es
at t
he fe
et o
f Pa
ram
abha
t .t .a r
aka
Val
kha
God
Bap
pa-P
isac
hade
va
inst
alle
d in
the
vis
haya
of
Nar
mm
ada
para
pare
Vill
age
of Ja
yase
nana
ka a
nd
the
erst
whi
le b
rahm
adey
a ks
hetr
a of
the
vill
age
Gar
jana
naka
whi
ch is
en
trus
ted
w
ith A
gnıs
vara
ka. T
his
gran
t w
as m
ade
at t
he r
eque
st o
f In
napa
da
For
the
perf
orm
ance
of
bali,
cha
ru a
nd s
atra
and
in
pro
vidi
ng fo
r sa
ndal
pa
ste,
ince
nse,
flow
ers
and
garl
ands
. Bha
gava
chch
hish
t .as
Tem
ple
serv
ants
and
Pa
supa
tas
wer
e al
low
ed
to e
njoy
, cul
tivat
e an
d in
habi
t th
ese
thre
e vi
llage
s.
(Dev
akul
asri
ta)
(Tab
le A
1 co
ntin
ued)
No.
Nam
e of
Insc
ript
ions
Don
orPl
ace
of
Issu
eD
onee
Loca
tion
Oth
er In
form
atio
n
at JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY on March 10, 2015sih.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Tab
le A
2. D
onat
ions
by
Oth
er R
uler
s to
Bra
hman
.as
Nam
e of
the
Gra
ntD
onor
Plac
e of
Issu
eD
onee
Loca
tion
Purp
ose
Gra
nt o
f Sva
mid
asa,
yea
r 63
, mon
th o
f Kar
ttik
a, in
th
e fir
st d
ay o
f the
dar
k fo
rtni
ght
(320
+63
= 3
83G
E)
Mah
araj
a Sv
amid
asa
w
ho m
edid
ates
at
th
e fe
et o
f Pa
ram
abha
t .t .ar
aka
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a S
hash
t .hid
atta
of
Aup
aman
ya s
agot
raV
illag
e K
ukku
t .ana
ka t
o th
e ea
st o
f Kat .
t .ang
apad
ra o
n th
e so
uthe
rn b
ank
of t
he
Nar
mad
a as
per
nor
ms
of
Brah
mad
eyag
raha
ra
For
here
dita
ry e
njoy
men
t fr
om s
on t
o gr
ands
on
Gra
nt o
f Sva
mid
asa,
yea
r 63
, mon
th o
f Kar
ttik
a, in
th
e ei
ghth
day
of t
he d
ark
fort
nigh
t
Mah
araj
a Sv
amid
asa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Ary
ya C
hatu
rvva
idya
pada
s,
resi
dent
in V
alkh
aA
ryya
Cha
turv
aidy
as
belo
ngin
g to
var
ious
go
tras
and
cha
ran .a
s an
d pe
rfor
min
g va
riou
s vo
ws,
au
ster
ities
and
stu
dyin
g th
eir
resp
ectiv
e V
edas
Vill
age
of D
aman
anak
a,
lyin
g in
Udu
mba
raga
rtta
pa
thak
a on
the
fart
her
bank
of
the
Nar
mm
ada.
Thi
s vi
llage
was
ent
rust
ed w
ith
Man
dara
For
here
dita
ry
enjo
ymen
t an
d fr
ee fr
om
encr
oach
men
t.N
o ex
ecut
or m
entio
ned
Gra
nt o
f Sva
mid
asa,
yea
r 65
, mon
th o
f Vai
sakh
a, in
th
e si
xth
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
(320
+65
= 3
85G
E)
Mah
araj
a Sv
amid
asa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a P
a nch
a
belo
ngin
g to
Vat
sa-s
agot
ra.
Thi
s la
nd w
as e
ntru
sted
w
ith D
adhi
panc
haka
A p
lot
of la
nd ly
ing
to t
he
nort
h-w
est
of V
an.a
vasi
nı.
Brah
mad
eya
gran
t fo
r he
redi
tary
enj
oym
ent.
Exec
utor
is V
arah
a Pr
atih
ara.
Gra
nt o
f Sva
mid
asa,
yea
r 65
, mon
th o
f Bha
drap
ada,
in
the
seco
nd d
ay o
f the
dar
k fo
rtni
ght
(320
+65
= 3
85G
E)
Mah
araj
a Sv
amid
asa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Mat
ujja
bel
ongi
ng t
o K
asya
pa-s
agot
raO
ne p
lot
of la
nd u
nder
th
e en
joym
ent
of
Yaj
nagr
ahar
aka
and
one
mor
e pl
ot fo
rmer
ly u
nder
th
e en
joym
ent
of
Loh
akar
apal
lika
Her
edita
ry e
njoy
men
t
of b
rahm
adey
a
(Tab
le A
2 co
ntin
ued)
at JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY on March 10, 2015sih.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Gra
nt o
f Sva
mid
asa,
yea
r 66
, mon
th o
f Ash
ad .ha
, in
the
seco
nd d
ay o
f the
dar
k fo
rtni
ght
(320
+66
= 3
86G
E)
Mah
araj
a Sv
amid
asa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Ary
ya C
hatu
rvai
dyap
adas
, re
sidi
ng (
vast
avya
) in
th
e ca
pita
l Val
kha
(a
dhis
ht.h
ana)
Vill
age
of D
rona
dant
ikan
aka
lyin
g on
the
oth
er b
ank
of
Dom
phag
artt
a in
nav
a-
rash
t .rak
a lo
cate
d in
th
e fa
rthe
r ba
nk o
f the
N
arm
mad
a.
Her
edita
ry e
njoy
men
t
of b
rahm
adey
a
Gra
nt o
f Rud
rada
sa y
ear
68, m
onth
of J
yesh
t .ha,
in
the
fifth
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
(320
+68
= 3
88G
E)
Mah
araj
a R
udra
dasa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Svas
ti V
alkh
a (fi
rst
use
of
Sva
sti)
Ary
ya C
hatu
rvai
dyap
adas
, re
sidi
ng (
vast
avya
) in
the
ca
pita
l Val
kha
Agr
ahar
a vi
llage
C
hara
vaha
ka in
nag
arik
a-pa
thak
a on
the
sou
ther
n ba
nk o
f the
Nar
mm
ada,
th
e vi
llage
Pal
asap
allı
in
Kus
apur
a-pa
thak
a an
d vi
llage
Bhe
t .ana
ka in
G
adhi
naga
ra-p
atha
ka o
n th
e no
rthe
rn b
ank
of t
he
Nar
mm
ada.
Acc
ordi
ng t
o C
hatu
rvai
dya,
ag
raha
ra n
orm
s H
ered
itary
en
joym
ent
of b
rahm
adey
aEx
ecut
or is
Bha
t .t .i
Rud
rada
sa.
Gra
nt o
f Rud
rada
sa y
ear
68, m
onth
of A
shad .
ha in
th
e se
cond
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
(320
+68
= 3
88G
E)
Mah
araj
a R
udra
dasa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
(firs
t us
e of
Om
)Br
ahm
an.a
Var
adev
a
of V
atsa
-sag
otra
Vill
age
of S
alla
kıpr .
isht
.-ha
ka e
ntru
sted
with
Br
ahm
adat
ta
Nor
ms
of k
ulag
raha
ra,
here
dita
ry e
njoy
men
t of
bra
hmad
eya
villa
ge
(bra
hmad
eyik
a gr
ants
) ex
ecut
or R
udra
dasa
Gra
nt o
f Rud
rada
sa y
ear
69, m
onth
of c
haitr
a th
e th
irte
enth
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
(320
+69
= 3
89G
E)
Mah
araj
a R
udra
dasa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a D
antik
a of
A
upam
anya
va-s
agot
raV
illag
e K
okila
vasa
ka in
N
ava-
rash
t .rak
a pa
thak
a
on t
he s
outh
ern
bank
of
the
Nar
mm
ada
Her
edita
ry e
njoy
men
t
of b
rahm
adey
a
Gra
nt o
f Rud
rada
sa y
ear
69, m
onth
of A
svay
uja,
the
th
irte
enth
day
of t
he d
ark
fort
nigh
t (3
20+
69=
389
GE)
Mah
araj
a R
udra
dasa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
From
Pra
chak
asa
Ary
ya C
hatu
rvai
dyap
adas
, re
sidi
ng (
vast
avya
) in
the
ca
pita
l Val
kha
Sank
hika
vasa
ka in
N
ava-
rash
t .rak
a pa
thak
aBr
ahm
adey
agra
hara
, he
redi
tary
enj
oym
ent
exec
utor
is B
hat .t .
i Is
vara
datt
a.
(Tab
le A
2 co
ntin
ued)
Nam
e of
the
Gra
ntD
onor
Plac
e of
Issu
eD
onee
Loca
tion
Purp
ose
at JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY on March 10, 2015sih.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Gra
nt o
f Rud
rada
sa y
ear
70,
mon
th o
f Jye
sht .h
a, t
he fi
fth
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
(320
+70
= 3
90G
E)
Mah
araj
a R
udra
dasa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Svas
ti. V
alkh
aBr
ahm
an.a
Var
adat
ta
of K
asya
pa-S
agot
raA
par
t of
land
in t
he v
illag
e of
Dag
dhap
allik
a, e
njoy
ed
as a
bra
hmad
eya
by
Bhut
apal
aka
and
Ary
yada
sa
Nor
ms
of B
rahm
adey
ika-
bhuk
ti. E
xecu
tor
is
Bhat .
t .i Is
vara
datt
a.
Gra
nt o
f bha
t .t .ar
aka
year
10
2 m
onth
of J
yesh
t .ha,
firs
t da
y (3
20+
102=
422
GE)
Mah
araj
a Bh
at .t .a
raka
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Svas
ti. V
alkh
aR
evat
ısar
mm
a of
V
atsy
a-sa
gotr
aA
plo
t of
land
ent
rust
ed
with
Vay
usar
mm
a al
ong
with
pad
dy fi
elds
in t
he
villa
ge o
f Sus
ahan
anak
a in
Asv
asat
i-pat
haka
. Im
port
ant
is t
hat
the
inha
bita
nts
of t
he v
illag
e ar
e al
so t
he in
tend
ed
audi
ence
.
Brah
mad
eyad
atta
. Fie
ld
shou
ld b
e cu
ltiva
ted
Gra
nt o
f bha
t .t .ar
aka
year
12
7 m
onth
of S
rava
na t
enth
da
y of
the
bri
ght
fort
nigh
t (3
20+
127=
447
GE)
Mah
araj
a Bh
at .t .a
raka
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Cha
turv
vaid
yasa
muh
a
of V
alkh
aV
illag
e of
Sı
tala
nagi
nıpa
drak
a in
Bo
t .ila
rasv
a pa
thak
a
Brah
mad
eya
gran
t-ex
ecut
or is
Jaya
nath
a
Gra
nt o
f bha
t .t .ar
aka
year
12
9 m
onth
of K
artt
ika
seve
nth
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
(320
+12
9= 4
49G
E)
Mah
araj
a Bh
at .t .a
raka
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Svas
ti. V
alkh
aC
hatu
rvai
dyas
amuh
a
of v
algu
Rit .
ikag
raha
raka
lyin
g in
G
adhi
naga
ra-p
atha
kaR
esid
ents
of t
he v
illag
e
are
info
rmed
The
kin
g’s
oral
ord
er is
bei
ng
wri
tten
by
rajy
adhi
kr .ita
K
r .ish
n .ena
. Thu
s he
was
the
sc
ribe
. Gra
nt d
eed
of
Bha
t .t .ar
aka
(cha
nge
in
the
form
at)
(Tab
le A
2 co
ntin
ued)
at JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY on March 10, 2015sih.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Gra
nt o
f Nag
abha
t .a y
ear
134
mon
th o
f Vai
sakh
a te
nth
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
(320
+13
4= 4
54G
E)
Mah
araj
a Bh
at .t .a
raka
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Cha
turv
iddy
apad
as o
f th
e ca
pita
l Val
kha
Vill
age
of
Nag
avar
ddha
nana
ka in
U
dum
bara
gart
ta-p
atha
ka a
t th
e re
ques
t of
Ary
yika
-Bh
at .t .a
pada
for
the
grow
th
of h
er m
erit
and
fam
e
For
bali,
cha
ru a
nd
Vai
svad
eva
offe
ring
s.
Brah
mad
eya
norm
s. T
he
exec
utor
is S
hast .
idas
a,
bhan .
d .aga
rika
, tre
asur
y of
ficer
.
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a, y
ears
38
, on
the
13th
day
of t
he
brig
ht fo
rtni
ght
of V
aisa
kha
& 4
7, o
n th
e 3r
d of
the
da
rk fo
rtni
ght
of (
320+
38=
35
8GE
& +
47=
467
GE)
Mah
araj
a Bh
ulun
.d .a
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.as
head
ed b
y A
svad
eva
of K
asya
pa-
sago
tra,
Agn
isar
mm
a of
va
tsa-
sago
tra,
Ska
nda
of B
hara
dvaj
a-sa
gotr
a,
Tun
.d .ık
a of
Kau
tsya
-sa
gotr
a, D
asila
and
V
asul
asar
mm
a of
Kau
sika
-sa
gotr
a, M
ahas
arm
ma
of
Gar
gga-
sago
tra.
The
se
Brah
man
.as
belo
nged
to
the
agra
hara
of A
ryya
D
haro
ddhr .
itaka
of v
atsa
-sa
gotr
a (e
vide
nce
of
mig
ratio
n?)
The
hab
itatio
n si
te
of a
vill
age
know
n as
R
ohya
vaha
ka, w
here
cu
ltiva
tion
has
been
te
rmin
ated
, situ
ated
in
the
fart
her
bank
of
Nar
mm
ada,
to
the
east
of
Isva
rase
nana
ka, t
o th
e no
rth
of K
arju
rika
in
Das
ilaka
palli
-ras
ht.r
a
Her
edita
ry e
njoy
men
t by
the
bra
hman
.as
as p
er
brah
mad
eya
syst
em. T
he
orde
r w
as r
ecou
nted
at
the
requ
est
of t
he a
ssem
bly
of B
rahm
an.a
s an
d w
as p
ut
dow
n in
a c
oppe
r pl
ate
at
the
ver
bal d
irec
tions
of
the
kin
g
(Tab
le A
2 co
ntin
ued)
Nam
e of
the
Gra
ntD
onor
Plac
e of
Issu
eD
onee
Loca
tion
Purp
ose
at JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY on March 10, 2015sih.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Gra
nt o
f Bhu
lun .d
.a, y
ear
57,
on t
he 1
2th
day
of P
halg
una
the
dark
fort
nigh
t of
(3
20+
57=
377
GE)
Mah
araj
a Bh
ulun
.d .a
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a K
usar
aka
of
Bhar
adva
ja-s
agot
ra o
n th
e re
ques
t of
Ash
ad .ha
nand
i
Api
ece
of la
nd s
ituat
ed
in U
llada
nası
ma
alon
g w
ith t
he s
urro
undi
ng
mar
shy
land
as
indi
visi
ble
brah
mad
eya.
It w
as
entr
uste
d w
ith K
hudd
atak
a
Her
edita
ry e
njoy
men
t of
bra
hmad
eya-
bhuk
ti.
Prat
ihar
a Sk
anda
is t
he
exec
utor
.
Gra
nt o
f Sva
mid
asa,
yea
r 67
, on
the
5th
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
of Jy
esht
.ha
(3
20+
67=
387
GE)
Mah
araj
a Sv
amid
asa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a M
un.d .
a
of S
an .d .i
lya
gotr
aA
fiel
d si
tuat
ed in
dak
shin .
a –V
alm
ıka-
talla
-vat .
aka
in
Nag
arik
a pa
thak
a. T
his
field
(ks
hetr
a pa
dam
) w
as
entr
uste
d w
ith A
ryya
V
anija
ka.
Prop
er n
orm
s of
br
ahm
adey
a-bh
ukti.
Enj
oy,
culti
vate
and
get
cul
tivat
ed.
Nan
na b
hat .t .
i is
the
exec
utor
.
Gra
nt o
f Rud
rada
sa, y
ear
67,
on t
he 1
0th
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
of C
haitr
a
(320
+67
= 3
87)
Mah
araj
a R
udra
dasa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a H
un.a
d .hya
ka
of K
asya
pa-s
agot
raA
fiel
d en
trus
ted
with
the
po
tter
Ary
yada
sa, s
ituat
ed
in t
he s
outh
wes
tern
bo
unda
ry o
f Das
ilaka
palli
As
per
norm
s of
Br
ahm
adey
a-bh
ukti.
H
ered
itary
enj
oym
ent.
Bhat .
t .i Is
vara
datt
a is
the
ex
ecut
or.
Gra
nt o
f Rud
rada
sa, y
ear
67,
on t
he 1
2th
day
of t
he b
righ
t fo
rtni
ght
of C
haitr
a
(320
+67
= 3
87)
Mah
araj
a R
udra
dasa
w
ho m
edita
tes
at
the
feet
of
Para
mab
hat .t .
arak
a
Val
kha
Brah
man
.a B
haga
va o
f the
K
asya
pa-s
agot
ra.
Uni
nhab
ited
villa
ge (
suny
a gr
ama)
Bhu
tilak
hadd
aka
in
Das
ilaka
palli
pat
haka
.
As
per
norm
s of
Br
ahm
adey
agra
hara
-bhu
kti.
Her
edita
ry e
njoy
men
t. Bh
at .t .i
Isva
rada
tta
is t
he
exec
utor
at JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY on March 10, 2015sih.sagepub.comDownloaded from