The Rashtrakutas and their Times c17.s3.35

c17.s3.35

The gentlemen who constituted the village assemblies in Maharashtra and southern Gujarat were known as Mahattaras. This term is nothing but a paraphrase of the words Perumakkal and Mahājana that were current in Tamil and Karnatak countries respectively. These Mahattaras or their executive (adhikāriṇaḥ) are referred to in most of the records from Maharashtra and southern Gujarat ranging from the 8th to the 12th century A.D. The term Mahattara indicated, like the term Mahājana, the householders or the heads of families residing in the village; this interpretation, which is suggested by etymology, is further confirmed by the Sanjan plates of Salukika Budhavarsha ( c. 670 A.D. ) which mention kulamahattarādhikāriṇaḥ, ‘officers of the elders of the families immediately after the Grāmakūṭa or the village headman.⁶⁴ This expression shows that the Mahattaras were the senior members of their respective families, and members elected by or selected from among them formed the village council. Most of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa grants from Maharashtra and Gujarat mention adhikārikamahattaras or mahattarādhikāriṇaḥ after the grāmakūṭa. Both expressions mean the same thing; the first is a karmadhāraya compound (mahattarāḥ cha amī adhikāriṇaḥ) meaning officers who are village elders, and the second a tatpurusha one (mahattarāṇām adhikāriṇaḥ) meaning executive of the village elders. The Gujarat and Maharashtra records do not give any specific examples of the number of the mahattaras of any localities as the Karnatak epigraphs do; but the meaning of the term, especially in the light of the expression kulamahattarādhikāriṇaḥ of the Sanjan plates of Budhavarsha, would tend to show that Grāmamahattaras included the elders of all the respectable families of the village. The Mahattaras of Maharashtra and Gujarat, therefore, must have been as numerous as the Mahajanas of Karnatak.