Climax and Cracks
Indian Feudalism – RS Sharma
Chapter – 6
- A regional survey of villages granted to priests, temples, vassals, and officials in Northern India can be based on available land charters from the two centuries before the Turkish conquest.
- The survey covers a wide area, from Assam in the east to Gujarat in the west, and from the Himalayas in the north to the Vindhyas in the south, indicating an increasing trend of granting villages throughout the country.
- In Assam, the village as an economic unit did not exist. The land grants primarily referred to large plots of land, often in forest and hilly areas intersected by rivers, which were not conducive to forming regular villages.
- A copper-plate of Balavarmma (975) mentions grants of 4,000 measures of rice, and another grant by Ratnapāla (1010-50) refers to a plot producing 2,000 measures of rice.
- Similarly, the Gauhati copper-plate of Imdrapāla refers to a religious land grant yielding 4,000 measures of rice, highlighting that large land grants continued for religious purposes.
- Moving eastwards into Bengal, ruled by the Palas and Senas, we observe that villages, distinct from land areas, were transferred to beneficiaries.
- Vigrahapāla III of the Pala dynasty granted half a village in Saharsa District to a brāhmaṇa, and Madanapala (1140-55) granted a village in North Bengal to a brāhmana from Campahitti.