44 U. C. Batavyal— Copper-plate Grant of Dharmapala, [No. 1, 
Maliabharata, remembered (her own disgrace at the hands of Dul^asana. 
Bhatta N a ray ana was a learned man and a genius. But there was no 
reward for his learning, and no recognition of his genius in the land of 
his own birth. Some of his countrymen had gone to Paundravardhana 
at the invitation of its king: and in search of fortune, he too, seems 
to have followed in their wake. Such, it seems to me, was the real 
history of this great Brahman, the list of whose descendants in modern 
times includes such names as the late Raja Ram Mohan Ray, the late 
Pandit 1 9 vara Chandra Vidyasagar, the Maharaja Sir Jotendra Mohan 
Tagore, Kt., Baku Hem Chandra Banerjee, the poet, the Honorable 
W. C. Bonnerjea, the Advocate, the Honorable Dr. Guru Das Banerjee, 
the judge, the Honorable Surendra Nath Banerji, the orator, and last, 
though not least, Mahamahopadliyaya Mahesa Chandra Nyayaratna, 
C.I.E., one of the most eminent of our living Pandits. 
Having come into Paundravardhana, Bhatta Narayana found a 
patron, not in Adi^ura, as has been hitherto believed, but in one Narayana 
Varman, who in the copper-plate grant is described as the Mahdsamanta- 
dhipati, of Dharma Pfila. Sdmanta means a vassal prince or chief. 
Narayana Varman would therefore seem to have been the head of the 
Imperial Department in which the Emperor’s business relations with 
Samantas was transacted. 
It was at the recommendation of Narayana Varman that Dharma 
Pala, while encamped at Pataliputra, in the 32nd year of his reign, 
issued this copper-plate grant in favour of Bhatta Narayana. It was 
a princely gift which, valued in the currency of our day, would be worth 
more than a lakh of rupees, and shows in what great esteem the Bhatta 
was held in the land of his adoption. It is remarkable that the grant 
was made by a Buddhist king to a Brahman, on the recommendation 
of a high officer of State whose name shows that he was a Ksatriya. 
Eor administrative purposes the territory of Paundravardhana was 
divided into a number of Mandalas, or circles : and these again were 
sub-divided into a number of Visayas. The copper-plate mentions the 
Mandalas and the Visayas in which the four villages, the subject matter 
of the grant, were situated. There was a Record Office in each Visaya , 
the President of which was the Visaya-pati . Now it is most impor¬ 
tant to note that this officer had nothing to do with the collection of 
the revenues. The “ Collector” appears in the copper-plate grant as 
the Sasthadhikrta: and the “Magistrate” as the Danda-gahti. The 
Visayapati was the keeper of the Revenue Records of his charge : he 
was in fact the officer who under the Muhammadans became the Qdnungo. 
The head ministerial officer of the Visaya office, was the Jyestha- 
Jcdyastha ; and the Visayapati, it would seem, took cognizance of all 
