436 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1914. 



Mr. Pargiter thinks that "a poor brahman of no posi- 

 tion, who wanted only a parcel of waste land for his per- 

 sonal occupation, foisted himself into this village by forging 

 a copper-plate grant for a piece of char-land as having been 

 given to him by the business men of the village" i3 in- 

 credible. Mr. Pargiter's position seems to be very strong and 

 unassailable, but he has left one little thing out of his con- 

 sideration, which is that the inscriptions were manufactured 

 hundreds of years after its reputed date, most probably by 

 powerful landholders whose interests were at stake and who 

 claimed to be either the descendants or owners by transfer from 

 the descendents of the poor Brahmin mentioned in them. 

 Lastly, Mr. Pargiter is obliged to state that " there are 

 certainly some words which are not proper Sanskrit, but their 

 use, so far from being suspicious, is only what might be 

 expected when local conditions peculiar to this outlying" region 

 had to be put into Sanskrit dress. In answer it might be said 

 that Mr. Pargiter's translations of these words have not as 

 yet been proved to be correct ; it will take some time before 

 they can be proved so and the discovery of fresh records 

 must be awaited. Mr. Pargiter's Ingenuity is apparent, but it 

 still remains to be proved whether his explanations are correct 

 or not. It may also be that the forger of the document has 

 put some unintelligible words into his composition in order to 

 mystify his audience, for unintelligible quotations even, carry 

 great weight with them in the East, and, more specially so, 

 when the audience is wholly or partly illiterate 



The statements of Messrs. Hoernle and Pargiter about the 

 date of these records are of no value at all, as they are based on 

 assumed identities. If, at some future date, Dr. Hoernle can 

 produce some direct evidences to prove the identity of Yaso- 

 dharmman with Dharmmaditya, the case will have to be argued 

 over again on the merit of such evidence. 



I must conclude with some remarks on Mr. Pargiter's 

 peculiar method of determining castes. For example, we find 

 that he says "the termination Deva in names often desig- 

 nates Brahmans. ' One who is acquainted with Northern Indian 

 Inscriptions would emphatically den V such a thing. If on the 

 basis of such evidence we have to admit that slmacaradeva 

 was a Brahmin then we shall have also to admit that Lakshmana 

 Sena, Ramapala and Govindacandra were all Brahmins. I do not 

 know what evidence he has to prove that - the names of Mahat- 

 taras in this inscription do not appear to be genuine compound 

 Zh L'nu thf. component parts had been on one another, 



juchaa Dharmmaditya. Sthanudatta and Kulacandra in Grant A 



ntr,™ •;• 8 ? em to consist merel y of ^o separate words in 

 v»K T' ? ei ? C< L we ma y with ^11 propriety write them as 



TanarH^?*' J™ P ? lita ' Vihita Ghosa, Priya Datta and 

 Janaidana Kunda; and perhaps Jivadatta maybe so treated. 



