The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s2.1

c18.s2.1

(2. 1) *Cāṭabhaṭapraves'adaṇḍa* :—'Exactions at the time of the arrival of regular and irregular military and police forces.' Most of the village grants are stated to be free from this exaction. Cāṭas and Bhaṭas were the members of the police and military forces of the state, and when they were quartered in a village while on the march, the villagers had to meet a number of demands of their unwelcome guests. S'ukra lays down that soldiers should encamp outside a village and should not enter it except on official business.⁷⁵ It would thus appear that good governments of our period were trying to minimise the exactions of the soldiery by preventing it from entering into villages, except with the permission of the higher authorities. S'ukra's rule would, however, minimise only individual high-handedness. That the military authorities would call upon the villagers to meet their various needs is made clear by a record from Davangiri belonging to the 10th century A.D.⁷⁶ This inscription states that when Mahāsāmantādhipati S'āntivarman of Banavasi 12,000 came in to due course to Palarur, he sent a summoner to the Mahājanas to say:—‘A supply of grass is wanted for our troops of horses and elephants’. Thereupon, the cutters said, ‘Right well we cut.’ The king was pleased and set free the offering of boiled rice for the ghosts. It is obvious that the inhabitants must have been required to subsidise the troops and officers with many commodities besides grass. The tax Senābhaktam mentioned in the Arthas'āstra⁷⁷ corresponds to this exaction.