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The Rashtrakutas and their Times c17.s1: The Village Headman

The Rāṣṭrakūṭas and their Times c17.s1

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The Village Headman

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Every village in our period was usually under the charge of a village headman, whose office was a very ancient institution both in the south and in the north.(1) Like the headman of the Taluka and the district, the village headman was also a hereditary officer. He was more a representative of the people than a servant of the central government. The truth of this observation will be realised from the case of a headman in Shikarpur Taluka who died of broken heart, or perhaps committed suicide, in 999 A.D., on seeing the ruin of his own town.² During our period this officer was known as a Grāmakūṭa in Maharashtra and Gāvuṇḍa in Karnatak. Sometimes our records mention a Grāmapati in addition to a Grāmakūṭa;³ it would seem that Grāmapati in such cases denotes the holder of a village inām. Grāmabhoktṛs figuring in some of the Śilāhāra records⁴ seems to belong to the same category. In 974 A.D. the village of Kadkeri in Karnatak had a village governor in addition to a village headman; the former is described as a hero in battlefield and a touchstone of heroes.⁵ Some of the villages were, therefore, clearly assigned to military captains. There are examples of some others being assigned to scholars,⁶ and the number of those alienated in favour of learned Brahmanas was considerable. The holders of these villages seem to be referred to by the expressions ‘Grāmapatis’ or ‘Grāmabhoktris.’ The unalienated village, however, had usually no officer appointed by the central government. It used to get its business done through the agency of the village headman.

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⁶³ Ante p. 159.

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⁶⁴ S. I. I., II, 75, 129 &c.

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¹ Altekar, *Village Communities*, pp. 1-2.

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² E. C., VIII, Sorab No. 234.

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³ Salotgi inscription of Kṛṣṇa III, Surat plates of Karka, etc.

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⁴ E. g. Badana Inscription E. I., III, p. 273.

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⁵ I. A., XII, p. 271.

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⁶ E. I., IV, p. 64.

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Normally each village had one village headman; there are, however, several records of the Raṭṭas of Saundatti and of the later Chālukyas, which refer to several headmen of one and the same locality. From the five Raṭṭa records of Saundatti published by Fleet⁷ we learn that Sugandhavati, Elerave, and Hasudi had twelve headmen each, while Hirayakummi had six. From a record belonging to the reign of Vikramāditya VI we find that Teridal had twelve headmen.⁸ This large number of headmen, that we see in these localities, is rather unusual. It may be perhaps due to the fact that some of these places were big towns; it is also not unlikely that there may have been prevailing in these localities the custom of allowing the senior representatives of the main branches of the original headman's family to officiate simultaneously. Two headmen, representing the two main branches of the original stock, still function in several villages of the Deccan; this principle may have been possibly given an extended application in our period in some parts of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Empire.

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⁷ J. B. B. R, A. S., X, p. 283 ff.

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⁸ I. A., XIV, p. 14.

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The headman has been, since very early times, in charge of the defence of the village.⁹ In the Rāṣṭrakūṭa period the villages did not enjoy that amount of absolute peace, which they have under the present administration. There were constant wars going on, and every villager had then, unlike in the present time, the prospect of winning the general's parasol. The population was well trained in the use of arms; even the bangle sellers could drive back armed forces and fight to the bitter end.¹⁰ The all-round training in the use of arms, the presence of numerous feudatories anxious to enlarge their dominions, and the ambition which the well-trained villagers must have had to show off their valour naturally led to several skirmishes between neighbouring villages usually occasioned by the desire to lift cattle. We find an echo of these village skirmishes in the Nitivākyāmṛta, a contemporary work on politics;¹¹ the Canarese country is still dotted with numerous Virgal records commemorating the death of the village heroes, who fell in these fights. Sorab inscriptions Nos. 102, 216, 326, 351, 454, 455 etc.¹² belonging to the reigns of Kṛṣṇa II, Kṛṣṇa III and Karkka II, refer to the deaths of the village heroes in skirmishes caused by this cattle-lifting propensity,—skirmishes which remind us of the *Uttara-go-grahaṇa* episode of the Mahābhārata. Honali No. 13 immortalises the memory of another hero, who had died while fighting for the cows of his village.¹³ Naregal inscription of the time of Dhruva is also of a similar purport.¹⁴ These records, though short, are thrilling ones; they let us know how these forgotten village heroes used to fight fearlessly for the safety of the villages where they were born and bred up, and even lay down their lives cheerfully, if necessary, for that purpose. Sometimes these feuds led to the destruction of villages; a record from Hatti Mattur, belonging to the reign of Kṛṣṇa I, immortalises the memory of Dasamma and Ereyya, who had died while bringing about the destruction of the village of Mattavura.¹⁵ These village skirmishes were equally common in the Pallava and Noḷamba dominions.¹⁶ The Rāṣṭrakūṭa administration, which was fairly vigorous in revenue matters, does not seem to have taken effective steps to put an end to these village feuds. While admitting that many valuable lives must have been unnecessarily lost in these avoidable conflicts, it cannot be denied that the necessity of self-defence and the fighting atmosphere around him must have made the average villager a much abler and stronger man from the military point of view than he is to-day in the present absolutely peaceful atmosphere. Many Rāṣṭrakūṭa officers were military leaders, and to them these military skirmishes may not have been quite unwelcome, as they must have kept the martial spirit alive in villages, from where the army used to get its recruits. It will be shown in the last chapter of this part how the average Deccanese in this period was eagerly enlisted in the armies of even the northern kings for his martial qualities.

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⁹ Altekar, Village Communities, pp. 45, 54-55.

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¹⁰ E. C., VIII, Sorab No. 530.

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¹¹ XIX, 11.

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¹² E. C., VIII,

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¹³ *Ibid*, VII.

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¹⁴ E. I., VI, p. 163.

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¹⁵ *Ibid*, p. 162.

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¹⁶ *E. g.* Ambur inscription of Nṛpatuṅgadeva, E. I., IV, p. 180; Muttugur inscription of Narasimhavarman, E. I., V, p. 360.

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Every village, therefore, as a rule, had its own militia in the Deccan of our period and the imperial army must have been largely recruited from that force. The village headman was at the head of the militia and was himself a good fighter. Sorab No. 445, dated c. 975 A.D., refers to a robber's attack on Kollana, a son of Gāvuṇḍa Kevase Kūḷa, when he fought, established his fame, and went to heaven. (17) Another record from the same place, No. 359, which refers to the death of a headman in a mutual skirmish among the Nāḷ-gāvuṇḍas, shows the same thing. A reference may also be made to an early Pallava record where we find the son of a headman receiving a grant for having slain the enemy and conducted with great devotion the wife of Yuvarājamalla and her guard. (18)

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The invariable mention of the village headman in the land and village grants of our period shows that he was intimately connected with the revenue administration. Throughout the subsequent centuries under the Mahomedan, Maratha, and the British administrations, he has continued to be responsible for the village revenues. (19) In the extreme south in Tamil country where village councils were permanent bodies, meeting regularly and functioning methodically, we find, as will be soon shown, that the headman was mainly shouldering the revenue responsibility, even in the case of Brahmadeya villages where the village councils seem to have been most developed. The communiques of the Chola government in revenue matters were addressed to the village headmen when it wished to give publicity to any particular policy. (20) Owing to his position and status the headman must have taken a prominent part in the meetings of the village council convened for the purpose of the settlement of private immediately washing the feet of the Mahājanas, granting their request and making a further donation of 12 mattars of land. It is, therefore, clear that like the income from the 12 mattars the proceeds of the charcoal tax must have formed part of the income of the headman and the Pergaḍe (?); otherwise they could not have alienated them. This record, therefore, shows that the rule of Manu that daily taxes in kind consisting of food-stuffs, fuel and other miscellaneous articles were to be assigned to the village headman was followed in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa as in later times.

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¹⁷ E. C., VIII.

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¹⁸ I. A., VII, p. 104.

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¹⁹ For detailed evidence about the assertions in this para the reader is referred to Altekar: Village Commuuities, Chap. I.

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²⁰ S. I. I., Vol. III, p. 299.

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From the nature of his duties it is clear that the village headman must normally have been a Kshatriya; the same is the case to-day in the Deccan and Karnatak. His influence with the government was as great as that with the people. Kings never forget to include him among the officers requested not interfere with the enjoyment of the royal grants; we often find him escorting royal ladies to their destination. It seems that he was entitled to receive a certain fee or tax on transfer of lands; even royal transactions were not exceptions from his dues leviable on such occasions.(32) Sukra's observation that the headman of a village protects it from these officers and aggression(33) was perfectly true in our period; he was the head of the village militia and to him the villagers looked for leading the village defence.(34) The headman was, therefore, as much indispensable to the people as to the government.

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