Pāṭṇā Plates of Mahāśivagupta Yayāti, Year 24

Translation by Laskar 1905

Om Hail! From that glorious town of Yayatinagara,—where the enjoyment of love is being continually intensified and still more intensified by the close embraces (of lovers), by which fatigue is removed, in which hissing sound often appears and in which hairs often stand on their ends, although such enjoyment suffers interruptions as the ardent young couple show their skill in the various processes of conjugal enjoyment with their eyes dilated (with excitement) and with their minds subdued and fascinated by amorous thoughts ;

—where, even in the midst of quarrels arising from jealousy, lovers, beaten by lotuses from the ears of women who have cast the beauty of the celestial damsels into shade by the ereatness of their endless and peculiar charms, have all their mental anguishes roused to action by the entrance of the sharp arrows of Cupid, with their hairs standing on the ends (lit. sprouting up) on account of the sprinkling of the drops of sweat (from the persons of the objects of their love);

—where, at the tops of houses beautifully white- washed, the places of assignation of unchaste women and their earl ornaments were whitened by the clusters of rays issuing from the club-like tusks of very lofty elephants—the rays which rendered the autumn moon useless in the matter of dispelling darkness ;

(and) where the fatigue of the women enjoying conjugal caresses with ardent attachment is removed by the breezes surcharged with the particles of water sent up by the breaking and - swelling of the high waves of the Mahānadī.

There was on the earth a beautiful king named Janamejaya, who had a pure and mild appearance and a lotus-like face, who had subjugated by the force of his arms all his enemies, and whose spotless fame, well known throughout the three worlds, covered the eight quarters like a canopy.

From him sprang King Yayāti, whose glory was sung in all the three worlds, who defeated his enemies with contempt as it were, and whose sword had its sharp edge made rugged with the pearls coming out of the foreheads of the elephants rent asunder by it ;

whose sword rent asunder with its point the foreheads of a large number of elephants, from which heaps of pearls came out and adorned the bosom of the damsel of the earth in every battle ; the dusts of whose lotus-like feet, as pure as the rays of the gems in the head-dresses of kings constantly bowing down at his doors, assumed, through equality, the lustre of these (7.e. the gems) ;

who, having defeated Ajāpāla in battle, astonished the heavenly damsels by capturing alive, with a smiling face, thirty-two big elephants, named KAmadeva, etc., whose riders had been killed,—elephants who had sharp and huge tusks and whose temples were discharging ichor and therefore abounded with flocks of greedy bees getting intoxicated (by draughts of the fragrant fluid).

The most devout worshipper of (the god) Maheśvara, the Paramabhaṭṭāraka, the Mahārājādhirāja, the Parameśvara, the ornament of the Somakula, the lord of the three Kalingas,the glorious Mahā-Śivagupta-rāja-deva, who meditates on the feet of

the most devout worshipper of (the god) Maheśvara, Paramabhaṭṭāraka, the Mahārājādhirāja, the Parameśvara, the ornament of the Somakula, the lord of the three Kalingas,the glorious Mahā-Bhavagupta-rāja-deva,

⟨29–33⟩ being in good health and having done worship to the Brahmans of the lishach at the village of Ḍelāḍelī of Telātaṭṭa Viṣaya or district in Ṣaṇṇavati, issues a command to all the dependants of the king such as the samāhatṛs, the sannidhātṛs, the Niyuktādhikārikas, the Daṇḍapāśikas, the Piśunas, the Vetrikas, the Avarodhajanas, the Rāṇakas, the Rājaballabhas etc (the following words):

⟨33–43⟩ "Be it known to you that for the enhancement of the religious merit and glory of ourselves and our parents, this village, extending to its four boundaries—with its hidden treasures and deposits, with the right to fines for the ten offences, with the freedom from all lets and hindrances, with the right to mango-trees and honey-combs, with its ditches and barren lands, with its lands and waters, with the privilege that it shall not be entered into by the regular and irregular troops—is, by a copper-plate charter, granted by us as revenue-free, with libations of water, to be enjoyed as long as the moon, the stars, the sun and the earth exist,

to Bhaṭṭa Mahodadhi, son of Siddheśvara and grand-son of Parameśvara, an inhabitant of Ntaraḍī in the Lāvaḍā district (viṣaya), an immigrant from Kasili in the Srāvasti Maṇḍala, a member of the Kauśīka gotra, with the pravaras Devarāta, Audala and Viśvāmitra and a student of the Gautama Śākhā.

Being aware of this, you should dwell in happiness rendering unto him the rents and other shares of enjoyment due to him." This my grant should be preserved like their own grants by future kings also, from a regard for religious laws and my own earnest request.

Thus it is said in religious books :

Land has been given by many kings commencing with Sagara ; whoever at any time possesses the earth, to him at that time the reward accrues.

The giver of land enjoys happiness in heaven for 60,000 years ; while both the confiscator and the person who acquiesces in so doing go to hell.

Gold is the first offspring of fire ; the earth is the daughter of Visnu ; and the cows are born of the sun. He who gives gold and cows and lands, by him, by that act, are given all the three worlds.

Fathers (in the world of the dead) clap their hands upon their arms, and grand-fathers leap from joy, saying "A giver of land has been born in our family; he shall become our deliverer.".

Both the giver and the receiver of land are doers of meritorious works and will cer tainly go to heaven.

A confiscator of (gifted) lands is not purified even by the excavation of a thousand oe tanks, by the performance of a hundred of vājapeya sacrifices and by the gift of a crore of cows.

He whosteals a piece of gold or a cow or even half-a-finger’s breadth of land is consigned to hell till the destruction of the world.

That ignorant fool who confiscates or causes the confiscation of lands is, being tightly bound in the fetters of Varuṇa, reborn of lower animals.

He who confiscates lands given by himself or others becomes a worm in the ordure and stinks there with his ancestors.

The sun, Varuṇa, Viṣṇu, Brahmā, Soma, the god of fire and the great god Śūlapāṇi welcome the giver of land (as he goes to heaven).

Rāmabhadra again and again requests all the future kings, saying, "This bridge of religion is common to all men ; it is to be observed by you in all times."

Thinking that wealth as well as human life are as unstable as a drop of water on the leaf of a lotus and understanding all that has been said above, men should not destroy the good works of others.

This charter, written by Kāyastha Tāthagata belonging to the office of the mahāsāndhivigrahin, the rāṇaka Dhāradatta, on the fifth tithi in the bright fortnight of the month of Aṣāḍha in the 24th year of the prosperous and victorious reign of the most devout worshipper of (the god) Maheśvara, the Mahārājādhirāja, the Parameśvara, the ornament of the Somakula — (lunar race), the lord of the three Kalingas, the glorious Yayāti-deva.

Engraved by Vijñanī Vāsuka.