Grants to the High Priest.
The Appendix, No. [XII]., being a grant of privileges to a minor shrine of Kanhaiya, in his character of Muralidhar or ‘flute-player,’ contains much information on the minutiae of benefactions, and will afford a good idea of the nature of these revenues.
Effects of Krishna-worship on the Rājputs.
[1]. Manu commands, “Should the king be near his end through some incurable disease, he must bestow on the priests all his riches accumulated from legal fines: and having duly committed his kingdom to his son, let him seek death in battle, or, if there be no war, by abstaining from food” (Laws, ix. 323). The annals of all the Rajput States afford instances of obedience to this text of their divine legislator. [The injunction to seek death by starvation is an addition by the commentator, and is not included in the original text.]
[2]. [The practice of a devotee weighing himself against gold was common in ancient Hindu times, was known as tulāpurushadāna, and is still performed by the Mahārāja of Travancore (Thurston, Tribes and Castes of S. India, vii. 202 ff.; BG, i. Part ii. 415; Forbes, Rāsmāla, 84). Akbar used to have himself weighed against precious substances twice a year, on his solar and lunar birthdays, the articles being given to Brāhmans, and Jahāngīr followed the same custom (Āīn, i. 266 ff.; Elliot-Dowson v. 307, 453; Memoirs of Jahāngīr, trans. Rogers-Beveridge, 78, 81, 111, 183).]
[3]. [Sāsan, a grant by charter of rent-free lands, made in favour of Brāhmans and devotees. For the formula used in such grants see Barnett, Antiquities of India, 129.]
[4]. [Menāl, Mahānāl, ‘the great chasm,’ in the Begun Estate, E. Mewār.]
[5]. “Saint Eucher, évêque d’Orléans, eut une vision qui étonna les princes. Il faut que je rapporte à ce sujet la lettre que les évêques, assemblés à Reims, écrivent à Louis-le-Germanique, qui étoit entré dans les terres de Charles le Chauve, parce qu’elle est très-propre à nous faire voir quel étoit, dans ces temps-là, l’état des choses, et la situation des esprits. Ils disent que ‘Saint Eucher ayant été ravi dans le ciel, il vit Charles Martel tourmenté dans l’enfer inférieur par l’ordre des saints qui doivent assister avec Jésus-Christ au jugement dernier; qu’il avoit été condamné à cette peine avant le temps pour avoir dépouillé les églises de leurs biens, et s’être par là rendu coupable des péchés de tous ceux qui les avoient dotées’” (Montesquieu, L’Esprit des Lois, livre xxxi. chap. xi. p. 460).
[6]. Genesis xlvii. 20-26.