DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

9.5] A SAMPLE HAND -GRANT 319
This corresponded to the basic change from the exclusive tribe to a
newly formed portion of a far greater general society.
The brahmin immigrants often failed to bring their womenfolk
along, which meant intermarriage with local settlers, and accounts
for the smrtis allowing seven generations of such intermarriage to
make a brahmin of a sudra, (Ms. 10.64-5). The whole Jaisia caste
of Nepal, like the Nairs of Malabar, developed from such regular
brahmin intercourse, which at the same time counts as irregular
philandering according to brahminical theory. Kings such as
Lokanatha in Bengal were not ashamed to proclaim their origin
from brahmins and Sudra women (EL 15.301 ff). The nrpatiparivrajaka
(‘ royal ascetic’) line of king Hastin and Samksobha
(A.D. 528-9) which ruled in the ‘eighteen forest kingdoms’ (modern
Atharagarh) were described (Fleet 25) from one such ascetic
Susarman, whose name undoubtedly denotes a brahmin. The only
explanation is that Susarman preferred marrying into a tribe to the
ascetic’s life. The ancient kingdom of Champa in Indo-China was
similarly founded by an Indian high-caste adventurer Kaundinya,
who cowed the local aborigines by superior prowess in archery
and married their ‘Naga’ chief-tainess Soma to found a prosperous
dynasty. That the savages often reckoned descent solely through
the mother would help such assimilation till the villages, and with
them a rigid caste system, clamped down.
9.5. It is useful to quote the terms of one land charter, namely
by the Vakataka king Pravarasena II in his 18th year ; it was a gift
of a village to a thousand brahmins collectively, of whom 49,
presumably heads of families, are named (Fleet 55) :
** Now we grant the fixed usage, such as befits this (village) auch as has been
proved by former kings, of a village which belongs to a community of those who
know all four vedaa. Namely, it is not to pay taxes ; not to be entered by regular troops
or higher officials; it does not carry with it the right to cows and bulls in succession of
production, nor to the produce of flowers and milk, nor to the pasturage, hides,
charcoal, nor to mines for wet salt. It is entirely free from all corvee obligations, carries
with, itself the right to all treasure-trove. And this condition of the charter should be
maintained by the brahmins, and by (future) lords; namely (that the grant endure) as long
as the sun and the moon, provided that they