Indian Epigraphy c16.s3.66

c16.s3.66

The Bhamodra-Mohota plate⁵ (502 A.D.) of the Maitraka chief Droṇasiṃha of Kathiawar offers a small list mentioning the Āyukta, Viniyuktaka, Mahattara, Drāṅgika, Dhruvasthānādhikaraṇa, Cāṭa and Bhaṭa.¹ Of these, Mahattara may refer to the headmen of the villages,² although in South Indian records the expression seems to indicate the Mahājanas or heads of the families or communities, who constituted the village councils.³ Drāṅgika is derived from draṅga which is the same as udraṅga according to Sanskrit lexicons and appears to be the same as Audraṅgika discussed above. The Rājatarangiṇī uses the word draṅga in the sense of ‘a watch station’.⁴ If that meaning is applicable, Drāṅgika of the inscriptions may have been ‘the officer in charge of a watch station’. Dhruvasthānādhikaraṇa was the office of the Dhruvasthāna.⁵ The officer in its charge is no doubt the same as modern Dhruva of Kathiawar and Kachh meaning a person who superintended the collection of the royal share of the produce from the farmers on behalf of a Rājā.⁶ The same officer is sometimes called Dhruvādhikaraṇika, i.e. superintendent of the office of the Dhruva. The Cāṭa and Bhaṭa noticed here are a regular occurrence in the list of addressees in North Indian grants of the medieval age. Of the two, the Bhaṭa is no doubt the same as the Bhaṭamanuṣya known from certain South Indian epigraphs and referred to above. We are inclined to take Bhaṭa to mean a constable or a Pāik or Piāda, while the Cāṭa seems to have been the leader of a group of them. Cāṭa is also found in the form Caṭṭa and Cāda in later epigraphs and is apparently the same as the Cāḍ of modern Chamba where he was the head of a Pargana.¹ Since however the Cāṭa and Bhaṭa are mentioned in most of the epigraphic records as belonging to the lowest rank of royal servants, the meaning of Cād as prevalent at present in Chamba cannot be applied to Cāṭa in the early and medieval inscriptions. This is further suggested by the fact that the Vākāṭaka inscriptions generally mention Chātra (‘an umbrella-bearer’, a peon) instead of Cāṭa in association with Bhaṭa.² Sometimes we have Cāra (spy) instead of Cāṭa.³