The charter of Viṣṇuṣeṇa
By: Harald Wiese & Sadananda Das
Contributors: Das, Sadananda, author
Series: Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis -- 11; Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis -- 11.
Publisher: Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg
Published: 2019
Place of publication: Halle an der Saale
Language: eng
Number of pages: 166
ISBN-13: 9783869771946
Subjects: Merchants; Early works to 1800; Legal status, laws; Maitrakas; Sources; History; Economic policy; Economic conditions; Sanskrit Inscriptions; Economic history
Description: The charter of king Viṣṇuṣeṇa is a Sanskrit inscription in Brāhmī script on two copper plates dated around 600 CE. Viṣṇuṣeṇa belonged to the Maitraka dynasty in Gujarat. Although the charter is not an endowment record, it shares many features with this kind of record. For example, Viṣṇuṣeṇa favours the merchants and informs future kings about the charter, he signs with his own hand, and he dates the document. The eternity clause is present as well as the pādānudhyāta and the pañcamahāśabda formulae. The charter's main part consists of statutes for a community of merchants providing for their protection against escheat and threshold breaking, restricting confiscation and conscription, setting fines for violence against workers or animals, and regulating liquor production and bordercrossing fees, etc. In 1953-1954, Dines Chandra Sircar has provided a transliteration and detailed remarks approaching a translation. Building on this pathbreaking work and on that of some other authors, this booklet engages in an in-depth philological discussion of the statutes, many of which still prove difficult to understand.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 13-22).

In English and Sanskrit.