1S75.] E. V. Westmacott — A Copperplate grant vg LaJcshman Sen. 



Sage, of that name ; the pravara also indicates descent, here from three, 

 Bharadvaja, Angirasa, and Varhaspatya ; these three are the same as those 

 assigned to a Brahman in a grant discussed by Mr. Colehrooke, page 305, 

 Yol. ii , Misc. Essays, where he says that the distinction between gotra and 

 pravara is not very clear. I may suggest that the gotra represents the 

 direct line of the descent, while the pravara enumerates the families whose 

 arms, as a herald would say, the person was entitled to quarter. 



The description of the nature of the grant is not quite clear. The 

 word sanJcadashdparddh, which I have rendered ' fines for crime', may be 

 sahyadaslidparddh ; the transcript of the Monghyr plate, which I do not 

 think very trustworthy, has sadashdparddh ; at p. 322, Part I, Journ., As. 

 Soc. Beng., 1873, Babu Rajendralala Mitra reads saddashdparddh. In the 

 Amgachhi plate, the engraver seems to have blundered into sadashdpachd- 

 rah. The expression has certainly some connection with the officer called 

 in the Monghyr plate daslidparddhik, whom Mr. YVilkins calls ' investigator 

 of crimes'. In the sanads to zamindars granted by the Subadars of Ben- 

 gal in Muhammadan times, and by our earlier Governors-General, the duties 

 of the landowners respecting the prevention and detection of crime are set 

 forth, and I think the expression I am discussing may have some reference 

 to similar duties. 



Of the names of places mentioned, I recognise none in the neighbour- 

 hood of the tank in which the copper plate was found. Nichdaha appears 

 to mean " the Pool of the Nich", the JSTich being an impure tribe whom I 

 remember to have found mentioned occasionally, but do not recollect where. 



The measurement of land by the quantity of seed corn it requires, is not 

 unknown in Bengal to this day, especially in Silhat and Kachhar. 



The tables of measures of grain are given by Mr. Colebrooke at page 

 533, Yol. I., Miscellaneous Essays, ed. 1873. The drha or drliaka differs in 

 quantity in different parts of India, but the table taken from the Bhavi- 

 shynpurdna accords best with the denominations still known in Dinajpur, 

 and is probably the one to which we should refer. The unit is the mushti 

 or handful. 



2 pala or mushti = 1 prasriti 



4 =2=1 kurava 



16 = -8 = 4 . = 1 prastha 



64 = 32 = 16 = 4 = 1 arhaka 



The drha, according to this calculation, Mr. Colebrooke makes 224 

 tolas, or 2 sers 121 chataks, and corresponds nearly to the kdthd, a wooden 

 measure holding of dhdn two, and of chaul three, seers of 96 tolas, in Dinaj- 

 pur. 



B 



