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The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s2.t1: (4, ii) Mines and Salt

The Rāṣṭrakūṭas and their Times c18.s2.t1

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(4, ii) Mines and Salt

c18.s2.t1.1

In ancient as in modern times the state was the owner of the mines in the realm. The expression *sahābhyantarasiddhi*, which occurs in most of our grants, transfers to the donees the state's right to the mineral wealth in the interior of the earth. *Vāchaspatya-bṛhadadhidhāna* and *S'abdārthachintāmaṇi* both give *nishpatti* or production as a synonym of *siddhi*; according to *Dharaṇi* the word also means *sampatti* or wealth. Macdonell and Apte state in their dictionaries that the word has also the sense of payment or recovery. *Abhyantarasiddhi* would, therefore, mean 'realisation of whatever is in the interior (of the soil)' or 'wealth in the interior (of the earth)' or 'recovery of whatever is in the interior (of the earth)' It is, therefore, clear that the meaning, which is here ascribed to this term for the first time, is the correct one and the expression proves that the state was the owner of the mines and minerals.

c18.s2.t1.2

Mineral wealth included salt mines as well, the ownership in which was expressly claimed by the Gahadwals and the Cholas.¹⁰⁸ The Rāshṭrakūṭa records nowhere expressly claim this right for the state. That may be perhaps due to its not having claimed any royalty in the salt manufacture; it is, however, also possible that the expression *sahābhyantara-siddhi* having included that right as well, it was not deemed necessary to specify it separately. It is, however, rather strange that even the records of the Sīlāhāras, whose dominions included the coastal districts where salt must have been manufactured on a large scale, should not be specifically claiming this right. That might perhaps show that the Rāṣṭrakūṭas and their feudatories did not claim the salt monopoly like the Cholas and the Gahadwals.

c18.s2.t1.3

¹⁰⁸ *e. g.* Saheth Maheth plates of Govindachandra, E. I., XI, p. 24, Tandonotottam plates of Vinayanandivikramavarman, S. I. I., II, pp. 531-2.

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