Dhruvasena I’s grant to Brāhmaṇas of the year 210 (from Palitana)
IN00605 Palitana Plates Dhruvasena I 210 (Translation)
Source: Konow S., Epigraphia Indica XI, p. 114.
[Lines 1-15 are practically identical with the beginning of the plates of Saṃ. 206.]
(Line 16.) Be it known to you that, in order to increase the religious merit of My mother and father and to obtain for Myself in this world and the other such rewards as I may wish, I have, in accordance with the settled rules of former usage, confirmed (the enjoyment of) an irrigation-well with an area of twelve pādāvartas and thirty pādāvartas arable land on the northern border of Ārolaka village which had formerly been and are still being enjoyed (by the donee) for the benefit of the resident of that same place, (viz.) the Brāhmaṇa Skanda, of the Aupasvati gotra, a student of the Vājisaneya (śākhā). Therefore not even a slight obstruction or dispute must be made by anybody to him while he enjoys (this land), cultivates it, causes it to be cultivated, or assigns it (to others) in accordance with the conditions under which he enjoyed (it) previously. This Our confirmation (of the old grant) should be confirmed by those born in Our lineage and by future pious kings, bearing in mind that power is perishable , that the life of man is uncertain, and the reward of a gift of land is common.
(Line 22.) There are also verses sung by Vyāsa about this, – The earth has been enjoyed, etc. The giver of land, etc. Those who rescind a grant of land are reborn as black serpents living in the dry hollows of trees in the waterless forests of the Vindhyas.
(Line 26.) The sign manual of Me the Mahāsāmanta, the Mahārāja Dhruvasena. The messenger is Rudradhara. Written by Kikkaka. The year 200 (and) 10; (the month) Āśva[yuja]; the dark (?) (fortnight); the 5th (tithi).