Part 10 - Donor Image (of the Kaveri Delta and the Cholas)

The general trend in all the land grants of early medieval south India is to establish the king as a benevolent and munificent donor. The Pallava Udayendiram plates described the Pallavas as having twigs (Pallava) of hands which bow down due to the weight of the gifts, ‘Danambhu=bhara=vinamat=kara=Pallava’.^[1] Rulers of this age are generally known for two types of donations, to the Brahmanas and to the insolvents, along with to the institutions like brahmadeyas and devadanas. The repeated portrayals of a king of this age become the creator and patron of the brahmadeyas.^[2] Rulers are generally of claims that their merit are increasing day by day by giving gifts of cows, gold and land, ‘anek-go-hiranya-bhumi-adi pradanaih pravrddhadharmasancaya’.^[3] The gosahasra (a gift of thousand cows), tulabhara (similar weigh of gold of the king) are considered the major forms of gift. Romila Thapar discussed the significance of this forms of Danas and Daksinas sepecially in north Indian polity.^[4] K. Veluthat by following that line, he presupposes that the purpose of this donation is explicitly stated as for punya or merit, but implicitly for gaining recognition and legitimacy.^[5] The donor and the recipient both mutually become beneficent and conferring newer status to each other. In the Sivkasi plates of Vira Pandya, we find the beneficiary arranged a prasasti in appreciation of the benefactor or patron king and the king being pleased by that laudation grant him land.^[6] The grant of Vira Chola, states that a Brahman named Nila, the dharmapadesta or preceptor the king has given a village as Brahmadeya to clear the way for all his ancestors to heaven.^[7]

The attribute of a monarch as donor and especially of a piece of land, has importance of building up of his image. Beyond this image building, king plays positive role by assigning unsettled lands and transform them in to agricultural settlements, is more unique in this early medieval ages. The role of the assignees, the Brahmanas, to organise peasantry by social stratification and division of labour, is also unparallel from its early instances.