

44- Four Forged Grants from Faridpur. 



By R. D. Baxerji, M.A. 



In the July number of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society for 1913 Mr. F. E. Pargiter has said that ''both Dr. 

 Bloch and Babu R. D. Banerji have pronounced this fourth 

 grant to be spurious, but they had not the advantage of seeing 

 the three other grants, whereas I had the advantage of reading 

 ail four before pronouncing any opinion on any of them. ' ' When 

 I wrote my first article on the subject of these plates, entitled 

 "The Kotwalipara Grant of Samacaradeva," l I had not the 

 advantage of examining all the plates, and so a considerable 

 number of mistakes and defects crept into it. But my second 

 article on the subject of these plates, entitled "The Evidence 

 of the Faridpur Grants," was written after a long examination 

 of the plates, which had then been returned to the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal by Dr. Hoernle. I find to my regret that I 

 have not been able to express myself clearly on the subject 

 of the genuineness of these copper-plate grants from Eastern 

 Bengal. In my opinion, all of these four grants are ancient 

 forgeries. Mr. Pargiter has already observed that " these 

 grants a,re of a somewhat new kind. They are not Royal 

 Deeds, but are grants of lands by private persons to Brahmans." 

 In fact, this set of four plates differ in the nature of their 

 contents from any other copper-plate or sets of plates dis- 

 covered up to date in India. I am rather astonished to find 

 that the learned editor of these plates has not dilated on this 

 point sufficiently. In my second article I gave a summary of 

 the contents of these plates For the convenience of the readers 

 I am repeating them briefly : 



I- First Plate — Inscription of the time of Dharmmaditya 



of the year 3. 



In the third year of the reign of the Emperor Dhartn- 

 anlditya, while one of his vassals named Sthanudatta, who 

 had been raised to that dignity by the Emperor, was still 

 reigning, an officer (Visayapati) was holding charge of the 

 Mandala or Province of Varaka. At that time a Sddhanika 

 named Vatabhoga approached certain officials and common 

 people with the request that he should be allowed to buy a 

 parcel of land from them and to bestow it to a Brahmana. 



' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, VoL VI, p. +29. 



