Nālandā Grant of Samudragupta

Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramakrishna, Bahadur Chand Chhabra, and Govind Swamirao Gai, Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1981): 228.

1) Om! Hail! From the great camp of victory, containing ships, elephants and horses and situated at Ānandapura.

2-5) The prosperous Samudragupta, the mahārājādhirāja, and ardent devotee of Bhagavat (Vāsudeva) —who is the exterminator of all kings, who has no equal adversary on earth, whose fame is tasted by the waters of the four oceans, who is equal to (the gods) Dhanada, Varuṇa, Indra and Antaka, who is the very axe of Kṛtānta (Death), who is the giver of many crores of lawfully acquired cows and gold, who is the performer of the aśvamedha sacrifice—that had long decayed—who is the son of the son’s son of the prosperous Gupta, the mahārāja —the son’s son of the prosperous Ghaṭotkaca, the mahārāja— (and) the son of the prosperous Candragupta, the mahārājādhirāja, the daughters son of the Licchavi (and) born of the mahādevī Kumāradevī—addresses to (the officers) attached to the treasury of the two villages— (1) Bhadrapuṣkaraka pertaining to the Vāviṛkṣyara district (and) (2) Pūrṇanāga pertaining to the Kṛvilā district, and says as follows:

6-7) “Be it known to you! For the sake of augmenting the spiritual merit of (my) parents and of myself, these two villages have been granted by me as agrahāra, with the assignment of the uparikara … to Jayabhaṭṭasvāmin…

7-10) You should therefore listen to this traividya (conversant with the three vedas) and be obedient to his commands; and all dues in accordance with the customary law of the village should be paid, such as (the find of) gold and so forth. And, from this time forth, the tax-paying cultivators, artisans, etc., of other villages should not be allowed to enter by this traividya—(for) otherwise there would be forfeiture of the agrahāra.

10-12) Registered (in) the year 9; the day 2 of māgha. Drawn up by the order of Gopasvāmin, mahāpīlūpati, mahābalādhikṛta, the akṣapaṭalādhikṛta of Anyagrāma. The dūtaka, the prince śrī Candragupta.

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