Indian Epigraphy c16.s3.28

c16.s3.28

That in later times official designations did not always indicate the same responsibility and may have indicated merely a rank in many cases is suggested by the mention of the Daṇḍanāyaka (sometimes modified to Daṇṇāyaka) and Mahādaṇḍanāyaka in the medieval records of the Kannaḍa area. Often he is the governor of a territory and, in some cases, the collector of particular taxes.³ In many cases, he enjoyed several other official designations at the same time, e.g. (1) Mahāsāmantādhipati and Mahāpradhāna; or (2) Mahāpradhāna, Antaḥpuravĕrgaḍĕ⁴ and Mahāpasāyita;⁵ or (3) Sarvādhikārin and Senāhati; or (4) Mahāpradhāna and Senāhati; or (5) Mahāpradhāna, Hĕri-(Mahā)sandhivigrahin and Manĕvĕrgaḍĕ (superintendent of the royal household); or (6) Mahāpradhāna, Hĕrisandhivigrahin, Senādhipati and Kaḍitavĕrgaḍĕ (superintendent of accounts and records);⁶ or (7) Mahāpradhāna, Antaḥpur-adhyakṣa, Hĕri-Lāṭa-Kannaḍa-sandhivigrahin (Sanskrit Mahā-Lāṭa-Karṇāṭa-sandhivigrahin) and Manĕvĕrgaḍĕ; or (8) Mahāsāmantādhipati, Mahā- pradhāna, Bhānasavēggaḍe (Sanskrit Mahānasādhyakṣa, ‘superintendent of the royal kitchen’) and Accupannāyadadhiṣṭhāyaka (superintendent of revenue from mints); or (9) Mahāpradhāna, Sarvādhikārin and Hiriya(Mahā)bhāṇḍārin, etc.¹ It is not known whether the different responsibilities associated with particular disignations were held by an officer at the same time; but it will be seen that a distinction is sometimes made between the Daṇḍanāyaka and the commander of the army (senā, sainya), the latter officer being often mentioned in these records as the Senāpati, Sainyādhikārin, Sainyapāla, Camūpati, Dala-adhikārin, Dalavāy, etc.² Sometimes military and civil designations are applied to the same person. Thus the inscriptions of the Yādavas of Devagiri describe the same officer as Mahāpradhāna (chief minister), Bāhattaraniyogādhipati (superintendent of appointments of the 72 kinds of officers), Paṭṭasāhanādhipati (chief officer in charge of the army) and Senāpati leader of forces).³ In one case, an officer called Mahāpradhāna and Bāhattara-niyogādhipati is described as the Sarvādhikārin (apparently, ‘governor’ or ‘chief administrator’) of Hagaṟaṭṭa-ge 300.⁴