The Rashtrakutas and their Times c14.25

c14.25

As against the interpretation here advocated that these figures refer to the villages and hamlets comprised in the divisions concerned Rice contends that the figures in many cases are too large to admit of that interpretation. He points out that Gangawadi 96,000 could never have comprised 96,000 villages, even supposing that its area was entirely covered by villages only and by nothing else. The same is the case with Nolambavadi 32,000 and Banavasi 12,000. Dr. Pran Nath, in a recent work of great interest, seeks to get over this difficulty by proposing a new interpretation for the term grāma. He contends that in the time of the Guptas and even much earlier it appears that the word grāma was used in official records for an estate and in poetical and literary works for a village or settlement. (16) He interprets the figures after the names of the divisions as referring to estates contained in them; thus Konkana 14,000, Banavasi 12,000 etc. meant that these units comprised of so many estates.