DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

8.5] CHARITY IN TIMES OF FAMINE 269
wealth immune to confiscation ; in fact, the kings supported them
with heavy grants. Penitent robbers wishing to renounce their evil ways
and the world found the monastery inviolable sanctuary, in spite of
Vinaya rules. The aborigines who still persist in the region as Kathkaris
&c and the villagers were led by the monasteries in times of famine
as an act of charity. The influence of the caves is seen in the language of
their region, which derives from northern Prakrit. The Marathi word
lenim comes from the cave epigraphs, but peasants in Maval still call the
caves beher, from the ancient vihara. The northern plough with crooked
yoke-pole and vertical handle, depicted in Kusana sculptures, though
rare in Maharastra, but still used near the caves at Junnar and Dehu.
It was not the Satavahana rulers that introduced the plough, but
rather plough that made kingship like that of the Satavahanas
possible, found on taxable regular organiser.
The brahmins had also accompanied the caravaneers as far as the
Godavari river, even before the Buddhists. The final sections of SN show
that they maintained contact with Maga-dha, but were engaged in vedic
practices and asked Upanisadic questions. The priest came into his own
when the great trade-city of Junnar had developed. Its real name was
probably Tagara. Junnar is merely the contracted form of ‘the old
city’, as Otur 15 miles further is of uttarapura = the northern city,
and the village of :Rajur on the way to Naneghat of rajapura ‘the
king’s town’. The earliest known Satavahana record is in the large
caves at the top of Nianghat pass. These are official caves of circa 150
B. C. for toll collectors, not Buddhist monastic retreats. The grandiose
inscription details the vedic sacrifices and the prodigious gifts of
cattle by the thousand, horses, ele-phants and chariots to brahmin
priests who had given the former tribal chiefs independence from
tribal law, and had regularised the new class structure as caste under
religious sanction. The rear wall of the cave had at one time relief
portraits of the royal line, of which now nothing remains except the
names on top, and protuberances showing the feet and the hem of the
garment. These were presumably suggested by the great Kusana
portrait sculpture to the north. With the general spread of village