Vol. X, No. 11.] Four Forged Grants from Faridpur. 427 



[N.S.] 



Governor of Navyavakasika and his deputy Pavitruka was in 

 charge of the Varaka Province, a certain Brahmana named 

 Supratikasvamin approached the officials and begged for a 

 piece of waste land. The officers conferred together and gave 

 away the land wanted. The remaining part of the inscription 

 contains the boundaries, the imprecatory verses and the date. 



It is now evident that these four copper-plate inscriptions 

 differ in their nature from all other copper plate grants dis- 

 covered up to date. They are neither Eoyal Grants, nor was 

 the grant approved by Royalty. Jn grants 1 and 2, a 

 private person approaches the officers of a district with the 

 request of being granted permission to purchase a piece of 

 land in order to grant it to a Brahmana In the third grant, 

 the officer in charge of the affairs of the district approaches 

 a number of officials his own subordinates, for permission 

 to purchase a piece of land and to grant it to a Brahmana. 

 The fourth grant is peculiar. According to the inscription on 

 it, a certain Brahmana approaches the district officers with the 

 request of being given a piece of waste land. In my humble 

 opinion these four inscriptions, whether they be genuine or 

 not, are not grants, but merely deeds of transfer of land. 1 

 am much obliged to Mr. Pargiter for the improvement made 

 by him on my reading of the fourth plate, but I am unable to 

 agree with him about the correctness of some of them. 



The word Anumoditaka in line 4 means sanction, and 

 need not be translated " which is cause to rejoice." Anta- 

 ranga and Uparika are names of different officials which were 

 held by one and the same person Jivadatta in this particu- 

 lar case. Several instances have been found of the sepa- 

 rate use of these official titles. Antarariga in one case at 

 least has been used as the title of a Royal Physician. J The 

 word Jyesthadhikaranika cannot be translated " the District 

 Government," because if the word Adhikarana be taken to 

 be the name of an office and Adhikaranika that of a Govern- 

 ment, then the word Karanika in line 15 should also be 

 taken to men" a Government" or "a Department," and 

 not a single office, which is simply impossible, because the 

 officers are mentioned by name. 



The identification of the Mandala of Varaka with modern 

 or ancient Varendri does not carry conviction, the forms 

 of the names are widely different, and though there may be 

 a common root in both, there is nothing to show that they 

 were one and the same; moreover, in the copper-plate grants 

 of Sena Kings of Bengal the name is usually found to be 

 Varendri and not Varendra The form of Varendra is found 

 in later records, principally in genealogical works, none of 



1 Cakradatta, edited by Jasodauand m Sarkar, Cal utta, U.S. LV>2. 



