@article{oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00008809, author = {三田, 昌彦 and MITA, Masahiko}, journal = {名古屋大学文学部研究論集. 史学}, month = {Mar}, note = {Diplomatic studies of land-grant copper-plate charters (tamra-sasanas) in early medieval India has so far been published by some scholars like B.C. Chhabbra and D.C. Sircar. They solely analyzed charters issued by sovereign dynasties and emphasized uniformity of their textual forms. However, early medieval states were composed of various grades of local rulers, i.e. samantas, who, too, issued copperplate grants as ‘kings’, and their charters which were manifestation of kingship actually had various forms according to their royal status. This research compares differences of the textual forms between the royal charters issued by the Gurjara-Pratihara sovereigns and those of their subordinate rulers (samantas), and try to clarify an aspect of the kingship and the political meanings of issuing charters in early medieval India. From our analysis, the following points are clarified. 1) While the Pratihara sovereign charters do not have prasastis (eulogies) of the royal family (vamsa) and only enumerate their ancestors, the charters issued by their samantas have long and detailed prasastis which eulogize the achievements of respective former rulers of their families. Copper-plate charters have often been considered by some historians as media of royal propaganda, but the case can be applied only to the samantas in the Pratihara empire. Imperial Pratiharas chose stone inscriptions as the media (cf. the Gwalior inscription). 2) The sovereign charters are well unified in their textual forms and even in every word, while the forms of the samantas’ are varied each other even in the same families, and differ from the standard forms exemplified in the legal texts (dharmasastras). 3) Issuing land-grant charters was the privilege only allowed to “king (mahipati)”, and in accordance with the principle, they had a peculiar form in which donors, informers and issuers were identical persons, i.e., “kings”. In this sense, many samantas under the Prat¥håras were considered as “kings”. But their kingship were varied according to their political ranks in the Pratihara empire. It is demonstrated by their charter forms, where some of them could issue land-grants freely, some could do with the consent of tantrapalas (the Pratihara commanders in the peripheries), and others could not issue landgrants which were issued by the tantrapalas on behalf of them.}, pages = {21--43}, title = {施与勅書と王権 ─プラティーハーラ朝勅書様式に見えるサーマンタ体制─}, volume = {54}, year = {2008} }