The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.173

c8.s11.173

² There has been a mistaken idea, which apparently originated with Dr. Burnell (see his South-Indian Palaeography, second edition, p. 67, last paragraph but one), that the numerical components of this and similar appellations denote the amount of revenue. And some apparent reason for it might be found in the facts that there are not as many as twenty thousand villages in Mysore, and not quite forty-four thousand villages and hamlets in the whole of the Bombay Presidency (4,492 in the Belgaum, Bijâpur, and Dhârwâr Districts; 18,912 in Kanara, Ratnâgiri, Kolâba, and Thâna; 6,042 in Gujarât; and 14,532 in the Dekkan districts of Ahmednagar, Khândêsh, Nâsik, Poona, Sâtâra, and Sholâpur). But there are quite enough passages to show clearly that the reference is to the numbers, real, exaggerated, or traditional, of the cities, towns, and villages: for instance, the Aihole inscription of A. D. 634-35 mentions "the three Mahârâshtras, containing ninety-nine thousand villages." (Ind. Ant. Vol. VIII. p. 244); the Silâhâra records of A. D. 1026 and 1095 distinctly speak of a division of the Konkan containing "fourteen hundred villages" (id. Vol. V. p. 280, and Vol. IX. p. 38); an inscription at Pâtna in Khândêsh, of about A. D. 1222, speaks as distinctly of "the country of the sixteen hundred villages" (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I. p. 345); and the meaning of the name of a territorial division called the Vêlugrâma or Vênugrâma seventy, is explained by a passage which describes Vêlugrâma as "resplendent with seventy villages" (Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. X. p. 252).—Other instances of very large numbers are, the Nolambavâdi thirty-two thousand, in the direction of Bellâry; the Kavaddivipa lâkh-and-a-quarter, which was the northern part of the Konkan; and the seven-and-a-half-lâkh country, which is the expression that was used in later times to denote the territory that was held first by the Râshtrakûtas and then by the Western Châlukyas. These large numbers must be gross exaggerations, based possibly on some traditions or myths. But there appears no reason for objecting to the literal meaning of such more reasonable appellations as the Konkana fourteen-hundred and nine-hundred, the Sântalige thousand, the Tardavâdi thousand, the Pânumgal five-hundred, and the Belvola three-hundred; and possibly, when we know more as to how far the larger numbers include the smaller, of the Kundi three-thousand, the Katahâta four-thousand, the Toragale six-thousand, the Palasige twelve-thousand, and the Banavâsi twelve-thousand.—The system of administration by dividing the country into circles of tens, twenties, hundreds, and thousands of villages, is prescribed in the Mânavadharmaśâstra, vii. 113 to 147.