Feudal Polity in Three Kingdoms
Indian Feudalism
Chapter – 2
- The transfer of fiscal and administrative rights to recipients of land grants began on a large scale under the Guptas and Harsha and continued under their successors.
- The Gupta kings directly made very few grants, most being endowments made by their feudatories or subordinate chiefs in Central India.
- Under the Pālas, grants were generally made by the kings themselves, starting with Dharmapāla.
- Dharmapāla granted four villages in North Bengal to the Nunna Narayana temple founded by his vassal Nārāyaṇavarman at Subhasthali.
- The real beneficiaries of the grants were the Lata Brahmanas, priests, and other attendants of the temple.
- These villages were granted as a perpetual grant, with rights over lowland (talapataka), occasional markets (hattika), and local fines for ten specified offences, with exemption from royal molestation.
- Dharmapāla also granted a village to a local Buddhist religious leader in the Nalanda area, free from taxes and royal agents, along with the right to punish thieves.
- Devapala, the successor of Dharmapāla, granted Mesika village in Monghyr district to a Brahmana, ordering the cultivators (Ksetrakaras) to obey the grantee.
- Mahīpāla granted three villages in North Bengal (Pundrabhukti) for Buddhist worship and granted five villages to the Nālandā monastery.
- These religious grants under the Pālas showed that Brahmanas, Buddhist monasteries, and Shaiva temples emerged as landed intermediaries, enjoying not only economic privileges but also administrative powers.