The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.89

c21.89

Our epigraphical records prove that during our period, Brahmanas of one province were freely going to permanently settle in another. The donees of the Alas plates of Yuvarāja Govinda (66) and the Wani-Dindori plates of Govinda III (67) were immigrants from Vengi in Kalinga country, and since they were assigned villages in Maharashtra, it is clear that they had permanently domiciled in that province. The donees of the Begumra plates of Indra III (68) and the Sangli plates of Govinda IV(69) were immigrants respectively from Pataliputra and Pundravardhana (in northern Bengal). It is, therefore, clear that provincial barriers of castes had not arisen in our period. Indra III and his religious advisers did not share the view of the *Atrisaṃhitā*(70) that a Magadha Brahmana was not to be honoured even if he was as learned as Brihaspati; for, in that case the donee of the Begumra plates would not have been a Brahmana from Pataliputra. Nāgamārya, the donee of the Cambay plates of Govinda IV,(71) was an immigrant from Kavi in Gujrat settled in Malkhed. It is obvious that the present-day prejudice in the Deccan, that a Brahmana from Gujrat is inferior to one from the Deccan, does not go back to our period; for Gujrat Brahmanas were settling down in Karnatak and were being honoured with *brahmadeya* grants. In no records of our period are the donees described as Gauḍa, Kanoji, Nāgara or Drāviḍa Brahmanas. In later records, however, such provincial denominations become the order of the day. Thus in Bahal (Khandesh district) inscription of the Yādava king Singhana, dated 1222 A.D.,(72) the composer of the grant describes himself as a Nāgara-Jñātīya-Brāhmaṇa. Though the provincial castes had not arisen in our period, the way to their formation was being paved. Smritis like the *Atrisaṃhitā* were helping the fissiparous tendency by dubbing as worthless the Brahmanas of certain provinces; their teachings had no effect on the Deccan of our period, but they were being gradually followed in the north in the 11th century. For, Alberuni notes that in his time it was regarded as sinful for a Brahmana to cross the Sindhu or the Chambal and enter the territories beyond them.(73) The time was, therefore, at hand when provincial barriers were to introduce further ramifications in the caste system.