45 
1894.] U. C. Batavyal— Copper-plate Grant of DJiarmap ala. 
judicial questions relating to land and land revenue. Under him was 
an officer, named Dagagrdmika, or the superintendent of ten villages : 
which shows that there was a farther administrative sub-division of 
ten-village groups, the village, or grama, being then, as now, the lowest 
unit in the chain of administrative division. 
The office of the Jyestha-kayastha shows that there were inferior 
Kayasthas, or writers (or Patwarls, as we now call them), in the villages 
within the jurisdiction of the Visaya. 1 In other words, Kayasthas 
must have been numerous in Bengal when Bhatta Narayana came. 
Thus the tradition about the Kayasthas of Bengal being the de¬ 
scendants of the five Kayastha servants of the five Kannaujia Brah¬ 
mans now seems to be a pure myth. It may be true that Adi^ura 
invited five Brahmans as well as five Kayasthas from the civilized and 
advanced province of Kannauj, to introduce spiritual and secular 
reforms in Bengal; but it does not follow that at that time there were 
no Brahmans or no Kayasthas in Bengal at all. 
As regards the territory of Paundravardhana, or Pundra, there 
can be no doubt that originally it meant North Bengal, and may have 
included Ba^ga proper, or Eastern and Deltaic Bengal also. The capital 
was at the place now occupied by the extensive ruins of Pandua, pro¬ 
perly Parua , in the district of Maldah, on the east of the Mahananda. 
A great branch of the Ganges (now known as the Kalindi) originally 
joined the Mahananda river, close to the ancient city of Pundra, which 
being thus at the confluence of two great rivers rapidly rose in wealth 
and power. It existed as the capital of an independent kingdom down 
to the latter part of the 8th century, when, as the copper-plate shows 
it became absorbed in the dominion of the Palas. A new and a rival 
capital on the west bank of the Mahananda, near its junction with the 
Kalindi, appears to have arisen under the Palas, or shortly before the 
rise of that dynasty, and this ultimately became the Gaur of Muhamma¬ 
dan history. 
In the district of Malda we still have an important caste called 
Pundarl, or Pura, the members of which were returned at the last 
census at 9,000 in round numbers. They seem to be the descendants 
of the ancient Pundras—at one time the ruling caste in the country. 
They are a pushing race, numbering in their ranks pleaders, Government 
clerks, money-lenders, and traders. Many of them work as rearers 
of silk-worms and weavers of silken fabrics. They form a rich and 
influential caste; but even to this day they have not succeeded in 
securing the services of pare Brahmans as priests. They have a quarter 
of their own in the town of English-bazar, known as ' Pilrdtuli. 
1 These inferior officers are the Karanas of the copper-plate. 
