Impact of Vedic Culture on Society

by Kaushik Acharya | 2020 | 120,081 words

This page relates ‘Sanskrit Inscriptions (K): The Paramaras’ of the study on the Impact of Vedic Culture on Society as Reflected in Select Sanskrit Inscriptions found in Northern India (4th Century CE to 12th Century CE). These pages discuss the ancient Indian tradition of Dana (making gifts, donation). They further study the migration, rituals and religious activities of Brahmanas and reveal how kings of northern India granted lands for the purpose of austerities and Vedic education.

Sanskrit Inscriptions (K): The Paramāras

[Study of Sanskrit Inscriptions Issued During Early and Early Medieval Period (K): The Paramāras]

In about the first quarter of the ninth century, the Paramāras consolidated themselves in the Malwa region.In the second half of the eleventh century, A Yadava charter from Devalili records a grant of a village to a Brahmaṇa Sillana whose ancestor had emigrated from Oyari-grāma in Madhyadeśa to serve under Paramāra King Vairisiṃha of Dharā in Madhya Pradesh. Oyari, the village where the brahmaṇa had initially been lived, is not identified yet. As regardsthe geographical extent of Madhyadeśa in which the village Oyari situated, D.C. Sircar identifies it with the central part of North India. He further added that what was initially being called Aryāvarta, [1] was later named Madhyadeśa.[2] The village Oyari-grāma, where Brahmaṇa Sillana and his ancestors used to live, was in this region and from there he traveled to Dhārā town in Madhya Pradesh in search of employment.

The King Vākpati-II (Vākpati Muñja) of the Paramāra dynasty reigned and flourished in between c. 972 and 998 CE from Malwa,issued the Dharmapuri grant in c. 974 CE. The charter records that a tadāra on the bank of the river Narmadā named Pipparika was granted to Brahmaṇa Vasantācārya, son of Pandita Dhanika. He had migrated from Ahichchhatra, [3] whichwas an ancient town that presently situated in Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh. The actual location of the donated place is unknown to us; however, according to the description, it is said to be situated on the bank of the river Narmadā. Thus, it was located somewhere in Madhya Pradesh. And the donee Brahmaṇa Vasantācārya migrated from the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh to southwards to Madhya Pradesh.

Again, Vākpati II issued two sets of Gaonri Plates[4] , the first set in c. 981 CE and the other one in c. 986 CE, both the sets bear a handful of information on migration of vedic brahmaṇas during that period . The earlier set records a grant of 78 parts of a village Vaṇikā in the Āvarakabhoga and Hūṇamanḍala[5] collectively to twenty-six brāhmaṇas in the year c. 981 CE. The brāhmaṇas belonging to the Ṛgveda seemed to have received special preference in as much as four of them received as many as 19 shares. Vaṇikā has been identified with Benka or Bāṇī, 10 km straight southeast of Āvrā in Mandasor district of Madhya Pradesh[6] and Hūṇamanḍala in which the donated village situated, maybe the same as the northern part of the Malwa plateau. However, according to D.C. Sircar,[7] Hūṇamanḍala practically is the same area as suggested by Bāṇa in Harṣacarita, i.e., in the Punjab region. However, as the donated village Vaṇikā lay in that area and there is no confusion about the location of that village, the first identification about Hūṇamanḍala seems to be more appropriate, that is Hūṇamanḍala was the northern part of the Malwa plateau, neighborhood of the villages Banī and Āvrā in the Mandasor District of Madhya Pradesh.[8]

Among twenty-six brāhmaṇas, some of the donees came from the Mālava region, but others from far away as far-west as Gujarat or as fareast as Bengal. One of them was Brāhmaṇa Bhāila, son of Hari. He was emigrated from an unnamed place in Laṭadeśa.[9] Another brāhmaṇa was Murmjāla, son of Isvara from Nāndipura in Lāṭadeśa, i.e., Nandod near Broach, in Gujarat. And the third of them was Brāhmaṇa Nenaiyaka, son of Madhu from Kheṭaka[10] or Kaira, also in Gujarat. Another two of them was Brāhmaṇa Sarvānanda and Lokānanda. The first-mentioned donee of this grant was Brāhmaṇa Sarvānanda, who received as many as 8 parts of the village. Both of them hailed from Kanopā, which is unidentified. Still, according to the description of the charter, it said to have been in Magadha,[11] and it becomes so simple to identify that Kanopā was someplace in South Bihar. The most important information contained in this charter is regarding the migration of brāhmaṇas from various parts of the country to Mālwā.

It is noteworthy most of the donees came from different parts of Bengal and are stated to have belonged to Chāndogya branch of Sāmaveda[12] which is significant because of the preponderance of the adherents of this Veda among the brāhmaṇas of Bengal. Among them, Brāhmaṇa Donāka, son of Gosaraṇa, emigrated from Vilvagavāsa in Dakṣiṇa Rādha[13] which is situated in South Bengal. Before the independence of India (c. 1947 CE), Bogra district in North Bengal was the original home of three donees of the grant, namely Brāhmaṇa Śabara, son of Ranāditya from Kulāñca; Brāhmaṇa Madhumathana, son of Acala from Mitila-pājaka and Brāhmaṇa Sańkara son of Devāditya from Dardurika.[14] Mitilapāṭaka is identical to Mitailor. Matialpara and Dardurikā are the same as Dadra in the Panchbibithana. According to the description, both Mitila-pāṭaka and Dardurikā are located in Sāvathikādeśa, which indicates the tract with North Bogra and South Dinajpur in old Bengal, and all of the places being situated in the Bogra district in united provinces of Bengal.

However, there is some controversy among scholars about the places Sāvathikādeśa or Śrāvasti, Kulāñca or Kolāñca, and Tarkāri, whether they were in Uttar Pradesh or North Bengal. Hili, Balurghat region of North Bengal, was called Śrāvasti, according to D.C. Sircar.[15] He added further that a large number of brāhmaṇas of Śrāvasti in Kośala in Madhyadeśa[16] were settled in the Hili-Balurghat region of north Bengal. They named their new settlements after their old habitations in Uttar Pradesh. He said that is known from the Bangaon Plates, issued in the seventeenth regnal year of Vigrahapāla-III, the brāhmaṇas of a place called Krodāñca, Krodañja or Kolāñca, located in Uttar Pradesh, probably in the Śravasti area, were highly respected by the brāhmaṇas of Mithila. The Maithilī brāhmaṇas could not have been so respectful towards the brahmaṇas of North Bengal according to him. Moreover, according to tradition, the ancestors of the Kulina brāhmaṇas of Bengal region came froma certain place called Krodanja or Krosañja, which is stated to have been situated in Śrāvasti or Sāvathikādeśa in Śubhańkarapāṭaka grant of Dharmapāla from Assam.[17] According to P.N. Bhattacharya[18] Śrāvasti or Sāvathikādeśa was the kingdom of Kāmarūpa. Śrāvasti in Uttara-Kośala, i.e., the Ayodhya region, was an essential center of the Buddhists. As a result of the spread of Buddhism in that region, the brāhmaṇas of Śrāvasti left their home and came to settle in Kāmarūpa, Bhattacharya added. The later period when the Bengal region became free from Buddhist influence, those brāhmaṇas migrated from Assam and went to settle in Pundravardhana, which was the ancient name of the present day’s NorthBengal. On the other hand, D.C. Sircar already identifies the Śrāvasti from the Śubhankarapāṭaka grant with the Hili-Balurghat area of North Bengal. Thus both the eminent scholars, D.C. Sircar and P.N. Bhattacharya agree that the brāhmaṇas having left their original home in Madhyadeśa and settled in Śrāvasti, which they named after their homeland that they had left behind far ago.

K.N. Dikshit, the editor of the charter, said hesitantly, that the donees of the Gaonri Plates, whose homes are said to have been in Sāvathikādeśa, may have emigrated from North Bengal, or they may have come to Madhya Pradesh from Uttar Pradesh or even from Assam. As we can see, there are various sites called Śrāvasti, which are mentioned in different charters sometimes in Madhyadeśa, sometimes in Gonda and Bahraich districts of Uttar Pradesh, or Bengal or Assam.

Again, Ayaka in Madhyadeśa, and another unnamed village also in the same region,[19] were the ancestral homes of two of the donees. One of them was Brāhmaṇa Mūlasthāna, son of Brahmapanḍita, and the other was Brāhmaṇa Puruṣottama, son of Brāhmaṇa Lihā. Another two brāhmaṇas were migrated from there to the Paramāra kingdom, and one of them was Govindasvāmin, son of Devasvāmin came from Madhupālikā.[20]

This place Madhupālikā has been identified with Majhowli, a village name common in Uttar Pradesh, Paundarika, which itself is not identified. However, according to this charter, it was in Uttarakula[21] and was the original home of Vāmanasvāmin, son of Dikṣita Hari. The editor described Uttarakula, as some tract to the north of the Ganges, and maybe Paundarika was a locality there.

Brāhmaṇa Sihota, son of brāhmaṇa Mitrananda, and Brāhmaṇa Amatta, son of brāhmaṇas Guṇakara had initially been lived in Śravanabhadra.[22] K.N. Dikshit, the editor of this charter, identifies Śravaṇabhadra with Śonabhadra near Kanauj.[23] In the Mahudi Plates (c. 1017 CE) of Paramāra King Bhojarāja, Śravanabhadra has been described as situated in Gauḍadeśa.[24] D.C. Sircar mentions, the Gauḍadeśa initially seems to have comprised the present district of Murshidabad and southern-most areas of the Malda district of West Bengal. It was bounded on the north by the Padmā and in the south by the modern Burdwan district. The Bhaviṣyapurāṇa regards Gauḍa as only one of the seven deśas forming Pundradeśa. He further says the localities that made up the Gauḍa country (Gauḍadeśa) were the present Murshidabad district with some parts of Nadia, Burdwan, and Hooghly districts of West Bengal.

The name Gauḍa began to be used generally to indicate the countries of Eastern India in about the seventh century CE. Besides, several other tracts in different parts of India were also known as Gauḍa. One of such synonymous Gauḍa’s was the modern Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, in which Śrāvastideśa was situated. Besides, Gauḍa was also used in a general sense for the five north Indian countries viz. Sārasvata, or the Kurukshetra region, Kānyakubja or Kanauj region, Gauḍa or Bengal region, Mithila or Bihar and Utkala or Odisha region.[25] Xuan Zang refers to Harṣa's conquest of the five indices, which, as R.S. Tripathi explains, comprised the five regions mentioned above. Brāhmaṇa Sihaṭa and Brāhmaṇa Amatta, who have initially been inhabitants of Śravaṇabhadra, could have emigrated from Bengal, or anyone of these five countries, to the donated village which was located in the northern part of the Malwa plateau in Mandasor District of Madhya Pradesh.[26]

Hence the beneficiaries of Vākpati-II’s Gaonri Plates came from both far and near to settle in the village of Benka near Mandasor District of Madhya Pradesh. The present plates contain a great deal of information concerning the original places of the vedic brāhmaṇas, which is very important for the social history of that time.

The first described donee of the previous set of Gaonri Plates, Brāhmaṇa Sarvānanda, was bestowed with the village of Kadahichchhaka in Maddhukabhukti by the second set of Gaonri Plates of Vākpatirāja-II, dated c. 986 CE. The village Kadahichchhaka has been identified with Kadacha or Karcha, three miles to the north of Narwal and three miles to the north-west of Gaonri near Ujjain, about 150 km away from the previous grant which was in Mandasor in Madhya Pradesh. Maddhukabhuki, in which the village situated is indicated by the Maha or Mhow cantonment near Indore, about forty miles from Narwal. Brāhmaṇa Sarvānanda, who had emigrated from Kanopa[27] in Magadha in South Bihar, was enjoying a village Vāṇika with twenty-five other brāhmaṇas since c. 981 CE (as mentioned in the previous set of Gaonri Plates), now by this grant, was made the sole proprietor of another village Kadahichchhaka in c. 986 CE.

In c. 1019 CE, The Betma grant of Paramāra Bhojadeva, nephew of Vākpatirāja-II, handed over a village Nalatadāga to the Brāhmaṇa Panḍita Delha, son of Thatthaśika. His ancestors had emigrated from Viśālagrāma, which is not identified yet. However, hehad come from Sthāṇviśvara or modern Thanesvar in Haryana.[28] He received the village of Nalatadāga, included in Nyayapadra-saptadaśaka, which is identified with Nal in Kaira district of Gujarat. So, the donee came from Thanesar in Haryana and migrated to the Kaira district of Gujarat.

Again, in c. 1022 CE, Paramāra Bhojadeva by his Depalpur granthanded over a property at Kirikaikā in the western pathaka of Ujjayini to Brāhmaṇa Vacchala, son of Bhaṭṭa-Sośvara, who had originally lived in Mānyakhetā.[29] Mānyakhetā is modern Malkhed in the Gulbarga district of the former Hyderabad state, now located in Karnataka. Kirikaikā, the village in which the donated lands lay, is Karki in the Depalpur pargana, nearly forty miles to the south-west of Ujjain, the western region of Madhya Pradesh. So, in this case, the donee moved from Karnataka to Madhya Pradesh, where he received some land of that village, Kirikaikā.

The Paramāra kings were Śaivites and built several Śiva temples, though they also patronized Jain scholars. Nevertheless, as we see in the inscription from Gaonri-B that mentioned above, vedic culture was there in the society, and Vedas were studied with attention in northern India. Thus, it was necessary to bring the brāhmaṇas from different provinces.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

According to D.C. Sircar what was originally called Aryāvarta, was later named Madhyadeśa. The early texts like the Mahābhāṣya define Āryāvarta as the land to the east of Ādarśa, which according to K. K. Dasgupta (J.F. Fleet, The Topographical List of the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, ed. K.K. Dasgupta, p. 13) is probably the same as Adarśana or Vinaśana in Sirhind in Patiala in the Punjab, where the river Sarasvati is said to have disappeared into the ground, and to the west of Kālakavana near Allahabad. It was bounded on the north by the Himalayas and on the south by Pāriyātra or the western part of the Vindhyas along with the Aravalli range. Most of the texts give the same geographical limits for Madhyadeśa. But, there is some controversy about its eastern boundaries. The Kāvyamimāṃsā of Rajaśekhara extends the eastern boundary as far as Vārāṇasi in U.p., while the Buddhist texts, the Mahāvagga and Divyāvadāna extend Majjhimadeśa, further to the east, one to include Kajangala or Kankjole near the Rajmahal hills in Bihar and the other to include Pundravardhana or North Bengal. Varāhamihira includes in Madhyadeśa, the rivers Sarasvati and Yamunā, as well as Sāketa and Prayāga and makes Allahabad, the eastern boundary of Madhyadeśa. Hence as Dasgupta concludes, the upper and middle Gangetic basin and the Yamuna-Chambal catchment area represented the heart of Madhyadeśa. Here in this charter Oyari-grāma where Sillana and his ancestors used to live was situated in this region only, and from there he traveled in search of employment to the city of Dhārā in Madhya Pradesh.

[2]:

D.C. Sircar, op. cit., p. 213.

[3]:

IA, vol. VI, p. 52.

[4]:

USVAE, vol. VII, pp.344-352.

[5]:

Ibid., p. 349.

[6]:

Ibid., p. 351.

[7]:

D.C. Sircar, op. cit., p. 108.

[8]:

USVAE, vol. VII, p. 352.

[9]:

EI, vol. XXIII, p. 110.

[10]:

Loc. cit.

[11]:

Ibid., p. 109.

[12]:

USVAE, vol. VII, pp. 345-350.

[13]:

EI, vol. XXIII, p. 110.

[14]:

Ibid., p. 109.

[15]:

D.C. Sircar, op. cit., pp. 297-298.

[16]:

In the Set-Mahet region in the Gonda and Bahraich districts of Uttar Pradesh, specially of Tarkāri in that region, which is located in some records in Madhyadeśa.

[17]:

P.N. Bhattacharya, Kāmarūpa-śāsanāvalī, p. 155.

[18]:

Ibid., pp. 163-167.

[19]:

EI, vol. XXIII, p. 109.

[20]:

Ibid., p. 110.

[21]:

Ibid., p. 109.

[22]:

Ibid., p. 110.

[23]:

USVAE, vol. VII, p. 351.

[24]:

EI, vol. XXXIII, p. 218.

[25]:

D.C. Sircar, op. cit., pp. 121-125, 129.

[26]:

USVAE, vol. VII, p. 352.

[27]:

EI, vol. XXIII, p. 113.

[28]:

Ibid., vol. XVIII, p. 323.

[29]:

IHQ, vol. VIII, p. 312.

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