Topic: India
Land grants formed an important feature of the Satavahana rural administration. Inscriptions show that the Satavahanas started the practice of granting fiscal and administrative immunities to Brahmins and Buddhist monks. Earlier, the grants to individuals were temporary but later grants to religious beneficiaries were permanent. Perhaps the earliest epigraphic grant of land is found in the Nanaghat Cave Inscription of naganika, who bestowed villages (grama) on priests for officiating at Vedic sacrifices, but it does not speak of any concessions in this context. These an in grants made by Gautamiputra Satakarni in the first quarter of the second century A.D appear first.

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