The Rashtrakutas and their Times c15.s1.61

c15.s1.61

Amātya or the Revenue Member figures in a record of the Yādavas of Chandor, belonging to the 11th century.⁷³ It is obvious that a similar portfolio must have existed under the Rāṣṭrakūṭas as well. The functions of this minister must have been similar to those described by writers like S'ukra (II 103-5) and Somadeva (XVIII). In the Malkhed administration he must have had a very big staff and secretariate under him, for, as will be shown in the next chapter, the central administration of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas had hardly left any revenue powers in the hands of the provincial governors and the district officers. In our grants we no doubt find the king making the grants and the foreign minister usually drafting them; but the officer who must have been principally consulted by the king must obviously have been the Revenue Member or Amātya, whose office used to keep the necessary records connected with land tenures and ownership. The Inspector General of Records must have been working under the supervision and control of the Revenue Minister. He is not mentioned in Rāṣṭrakūṭa records, but documents of contemporary dynasties refer to him and mention his designation sometimes as 'Mahākshapaṭalika' and sometimes as S'āsanādhikārin. From the Miraj plates of Jagadekamalla⁷⁴ we learn that this officer had a big clerical establishment under him; when his Mahākshapaṭalika interviews Harsha we find him accompanied by a number of Karaṇis or clerks. There is ample evidence to show that revenue records were carefully preserved in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa administration. One instance may suffice. Dhruva I of the Gujarat branch had alienated a village named Trennā in favour of a Brahmana. We find the grant renewed by his grandson Dhruva II when he ascended the throne. When Gujrat branch came to an end by the annexation of its dominions by the Malkhed house, we find the descendant of the previous donees approaching Indra III to get his title confirmed by the new administration.⁷⁵ The history of this village makes it graphically clear that the secretariate of the governments of our period used to preserve careful records bearing upon land-ownership. The originals of the copper plates were preserved at the district head-quarters; the Bhadana plates of Aparājita,⁷⁶ issued in 997 A.D., expressly declare that the original draft of the copper plates in question was preserved at Sthānaka or modern Thana, which was the head-quarter of the division. The copper plates were carefully compared with the original draft when they were inscribed by the smith; the Surat plates of Karka, which I am editing, state at the end that the chief of the imperial secretariate had certified that the contents of the plates, as they were engraved on copper, were identical with the original draft. From the Daulatpura plates of Bhoja⁷⁷ we learn that if the copper-plates granted by the grantor were lost by the donee, government used to enquire into his claims by a reference to its secretariate.