Indian Epigraphy c16.s4.7

c16.s4.7

The Sarnath pillar edict¹ of Aśoka mentions Āhāra and Koṭṭaviṣaya (a Viṣaya around a koṭṭa or fortress, or a Koṭṭa and a Viṣaya).² In later epigraphs, both Āhāra and Viṣaya are used to indicate ‘a district’. It is difficult to say whether they were the names of the same kind or of two different kinds of territorial or administrative units of the Mauryan empire. The official designations Prādeśika and Rāṣṭrika found in some records³ of Aśoka mean respectively ‘the head of a Pradeśa’ and ‘the head of a Rāṣṭra’. Of these, Pradeśa appears to have been a bigger unit like a province and Rāṣṭra a smaller unit like a district or its subdivision. It is again difficult to say whether Rāṣṭra was just another name of an Āhāra or a Viṣaya or all the three indicated different types of districts. In certain later records especially from South India, Rāṣṭra appears to have indicated a group of villages.⁴