The 13th-century text 'Lekhapaddhati', from Gujarat, is a collection of model forms (templates) for:

The "Lekhapaddhati" ("Method of Writing Documents") is a 13th-century Sanskrit text from Gujarat, which contains model forms (templates) for writing legal and administrative documents.

About the Lekhapaddhati:

• It was compiled in Gujarat, during the period of the Chaulukya (Solanki) and Vaghela rulers, around the 13th century (some parts may be from the 15th century).
• It contains about 100 model documents, used as examples by scribes (karanikas) and officials.

Types of documents included:

• Royal grants of land and villages.
• Orders and appointments of officials.
• Treaties between kings and feudatories.
• Contracts of sale, mortgage and loan.
• Agreements for hiring servants and labourers, including slaves.
• Marriage agreements and dowry documents.
• Letters and receipts.

Its importance for historians:

• It gives valuable information about the administration, economy, trade, law and society of medieval Gujarat.
• It shows details of land revenue, taxes, the rights of peasants, the role of merchants and moneylenders, and conditions of labour.
• It also contains documents relating to the sale of slaves, which shows that slavery existed in medieval Gujarat.
• It shows the language and style of official documents of the time.

Other sources on medieval Gujarat:

• Jain texts, such as the "Prabandha Chintamani" of Merutunga.
• Inscriptions of the Chaulukya and Vaghela rulers.
• The accounts of foreign travellers.

Similar texts:

Works on letter-writing and documents were also written in Persian under the Sultanate and the Mughals (insha literature).

About the Chaulukyas (Solankis) of Gujarat:

• They ruled Gujarat from the 10th to the 13th century, with their capital at Anahilavada (Patan).
• They built the Modhera Sun temple and the Rani ki Vav.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Temple architecture, music and medicine were the subjects of other texts.