Jonaraja, writing from 15th century Kashmir, gives us an interesting example of how some crooks forged the sale deed of his grandfather's land by cleverly changing a few letters in the Sharada alphabet, so that "eka" became "dasha" & now the sale deed was for 10/10 of the land.
Jonaraja's grandfather, Laularaja, had sold 1/10 of their land to someone. Soon after the sale, Laularaja died and his children were young.
This gave the buyers an opportunity to exploit the entire land by becoming squatters.
This gave the buyers an opportunity to exploit the entire land by becoming squatters.
They decided to forge the sale deed by adding some strokes in the alphabet that would change their meaning (the sale deed was written in Sharada)
The forgery wouldn't make too much sense in modern Sharada, but it was quite possible for the time.
The forgery wouldn't make too much sense in modern Sharada, but it was quite possible for the time.
This case was taken to court by Jonaraja when he became an influential minister for Zayn-Al-Abidin and the forged deed (on birch) was dipped in water, the extra strokes washed away revealing the original deed.
We get a look into how creative white-collar criminals in medieval times could get, and also understand the importance of land deeds for sale and receipt of private property in India of the time.
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