Indian Epigraphy c16.s3.77

c16.s3.77

Among other charters of West Indian rulers, mention may be made of the small list of addressees in the Kavi plates⁴ (736 A.D.) of the Gurjara king Jayabhaṭa III. The list consists of the Rājan, Sāmanta, Bhogika, Viṣayapati and Rāṣṭragrāma-mahattara. The Sāmanta was apparently a smaller feudatory than the Rājan. Bhogika, derived from bhoga, ‘a Jāgīr’, means a Jāgīrdār, while Bhogapati, found side by side with it in certain records, may be an officer in charge of Jāgīrs. Bhogika is the same as Bhogin of other records, to both of which the word bṛhat is sometimes prefixed. An early inscription from Orissa speaks of Amśabhadbhogika probably meaning ‘partner of a Jāgīr’.⁵ The last item includes Rāṣṭramahattara and Grāmamahattara who may be the same as the Rāṣṭrakūṭa and Grāmakūṭa of certain records of the rulers of Kannaḍa origin and were the headmen respectively of villages and of the groups of villages called Rāṣṭra. If the expression mahattara is taken to mean the head of a family or community, who was the member of the local council, we have to think of a Mahājana-sabhā for Rāṣṭra also.