Vol. X, No. 11.] Four Forged Grants from Faridpur. 437 



[N.S.] 



Hence it appears that in these names we have four of the caste- 

 surnames which are common in Bengal now, namely Kunda 



(modern Kundu), Palit, Ghosh and Datt When a 



person's caste is mentioned, the surname is sometimes omitted, 

 as in the case of the Karanikas, for while one is named Naya 

 Naga (Nag is another modern surname), the other is called 

 simply KeSava." The futility of such arguments are self- 

 evident and they stand self-rebutted. It may be argued 

 on the other side that if such names as Naya Naga and Sucf 

 Palita are taken to consist of one word instead of two then there 

 is no mistake. Moreover, Mr. Pargiter seems to have forgotten 

 that in modern Bengal nomenclature names usually consist of 

 three parts, such as Priya Nath Dutta, Jiva Chandra Datta, 

 Kesava Chandra Mittra, and these names are quite different from 

 such names as Priyadatta, Jivadatta, Kesavamitra, etc. The 

 work Karanika qualifies both names, and had it been a caste 

 surname then another such in the case of Naya would have been 

 deemed superfluous. Unfortunately the words Kayastha and 

 Karanika are not caste-surnames up to the 11th century a.d., 

 they are the names of scribes. Dr. Biihler's classical work 

 on Indian Palaeography may be consulted with great advantage 

 for both of these points: "Two works just mentioned (Raja- 

 tarangini and Ksemendra's Lokapraka&a) as well as other 

 contemporaneous ones, designate the writers also by the term 

 Kayastha, which first occurs in the Yajnyavalkya-Smrti, I. 

 335, and even at present is common in Northern and Eastern 

 India." ' A chance remark made by the father of the Indian 

 Palaeography throws a flood of light on the date of these four 

 grants. In genuine Northern Indian inscriptions the word 

 Kayastha does not occur before the 8th century a.d. " In 

 the inscriptions, the Kayasthas occur since the 8th century, first 

 in the Kanasva Inscription of a.d 738-39 from Rajputana." 

 Karanika also means a scribe, and according to Kielhorn, the 

 greatest of Indian Epigraphists, "a writer of legal documents." 

 To Biihler the words Kayastha and Karanika appeared f< to be 

 merely official titles without any reference to caste." Mention 

 might be made here of one inaccuracy in the translation of 

 the first grant. He, Mr. Pargiter, ha3 taken the word Vrhae- 

 catta (11 = 4-5) to be a proper uame, but it is well known 

 to be the name of a class of officers, who were most probably 

 the head of the Cattas. 



1 Biihler's Indian Palaeography, English Edition, p. 101. 



