The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.245

c22.245

Some of the records from Karnatak supply us information about the wages of the various classes, but there arises considerable difficulty in interpreting them. The inscriptions inform us that so many Mattars of land were assigned to certain persons as their annual wages of work. The net produce of the land given is not stated, and we do not also know the precise dimensions of a Mattar. The grant of a Śilāhāra prince records an assignment of 2000 Mattars, measured by the Tambola rod of the village, of two Mattars measured by the Magun rod, and of the three Mattars measured by the small rod of the paddy fields.(143) Since one and the same record mentions three different measures of the Mattar, it is clear that the unit differed considerably with the different localities. An inscription from Tilgund(144) states that the yield of a Mattar was two Khaṇḍugas i. e., Khandis which are equal to 40 maunds by measure (and not by weight). The net produce per acre varies from 6 to 12 maunds in the Deccan according to the quality of the soil, and since the net yield per Mattar is given as 40 maunds, we may assume that this measure was equal to about five acres. An inscription from Managoli(145) states that five Mattars were assigned to the teacher of the Kaumāra grammar and two Mattars to each of the 4 Brahmana families constituting the settlement of the god. The salary of the village Sanskrit teacher of our period was thus 2½ the amount necessary for an ordinary Brahmana family to live in ease. We do not know the net produce of the lands given in endowment, and so the salary cannot be stated either in terms of corn or of cash. If we assume that a Mattar is equal to 5 acres, and each acre yielded 8 maunds of Jwari, the income of the Sanskrit teacher would be 200 maunds of Jwari and of the temple Brahmana 80 maunds of Jwari (by measure). An ordinary family of 5 in the Deccan would require about 40 maunds of Jwari for its entire meal expenses, including ghee, oil, fuel &c. The temple Brahmana family was getting a fairly decent income, and the Sanskrit teacher was getting 5 times the amount necessary for the maintenance of his family.