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History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c12: Chapter VIII

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c12

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Chapter VIII

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The kingdoms of India of the 7th century A. D., notwithstanding their despotic or autocratic nature, were usually well-governed and happy and were probably better off in this respect than the kingdoms contemporary with them in the West. The Indo-Aryans, while they acquiesced in or rather preached the divine nature of the kingly authority, at the same time sought to impose a check on the autocracy of kings by holding that laws were also divine and incapable of being changed. In fact in the Indian kingdoms every thing from the life and conduct of the king down to the taxes and punishments was fixed by the divine ordinance of the Smritis. In the West the king is believed to be the source of all laws. In India the source of law is the Śruti and the Smriti and no human agency can change it. The kings with even the consent of the people had thus no legislative power. Their duty was simply to administer justice according to the divinely ordained law and to keep peace and order by punishing robbers and other evil-doers. They were to receive taxes from the produce of land and trade and handicraft for performing this service and the amount was fixed at one sixth of the former and one-fiftieth of the value of the latter. The former amount in case of necessity might be increased to one-fourth. The expenses of government, as Hiuen Tsang has noted, were very limited and the kings probably never found it necessary to levy taxes beyond what were sanctioned by the Smritis. The people again with their highly religious nature were generally free from crime and thus was caused that usually happy condition of the ancient kingdoms of India which so favourably impressed impartial foreigners like Hiuen Tsang who themselves lived under widely different conditions in the imperial kingdom of China.* With these preliminary remarks we shall try to describe in detail the administrative condition of the 7th century from the evidence of the Harsha-Charita and of epigraphic records of that time. The provisions of the Smritis also will assist us in this inquiry to a considerable extent.

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The country was called in those days by the name of Deśa a word which Varāhamihira and others also use. The former appellation of a country was Janapada or ‘people’ showing, as we have already noted, the changed condition of kingdoms which no longer consisted of homogeneous peoples bearing particular names. In the south, however, the word Mandala was more widely used than Deśa in such words as Chola Mandala, Tonda Mandala, Kongu Mandala and so on, wherein the first word probably means a particular people. Mandala often also indicated a division of the country or Deśa according to its people and the word Rāshtra in Mahārāshtra or Rājya in Kashmir also occurs and conveys the same idea as Mandala.

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The Deśa or country was usually divided for administrative purposes into divisions which were in the north called Bhukti and which in the south were called Vādi or sometimes Mandala. This division corresponds with the district of the British rule. The word Bhukti perhaps referred to so much tax collected and might be fitly translated by the word collectorate. The Bhukti or District was again subdivided into smaller portions which were called Vishaya everywhere and which correspond to the modern Tehsil or Taluka. In Tamil and other countries of the extreme south Vishaya was often called Nāḍa and in Gujarat we meet sometimes with the word Ahāra. Vishaya was not further subdivided though we sometimes find further subdivisions of the Vishaya into portions—East, West, North, and South as in modern or Mahomedan times into Tarafs.

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∗ This is what Hiuen Tsang records:—“As the Government is generous and official requirements are few, families are not registered and individuals are not subject to forced labour and contributions. Taxation being light and forced labour being sparingly used, every one keeps to his hereditary occupation and attends to his patrimony. The king's tenants pay one-sixth of the produce as rent and tradesmen go to and fro bartering their merchandise after paying light taxes at the ferries and the barrier stations.

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The Vishaya consisted of a number of villages or grāmas. Thus the lowest administrative unit was the village, a village being usually described as situate in a particular Vishaya of a particular Bhukti or Mandala. The Vishaya was named usually after the chief town of it while the Bhukti had a name which sometimes referred to a people. Thus Khetaka Ahāra means the Kheda Tehsil and Jejāka Bhukti or Chīna Bhukti (Hiuen Tsang, Watters I p. 391) meant the collectorate of the Jejāks or Chīnas. Bhukti also was sometimes named from a big town or city e. g. the Ahicchatra Bhukti mentioned in the Banskhera grant of Harsha.

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The grāma or village formed the backbone of the country and its administration and had fixed sites and boundaries For the villages remained undisturbed in the internecine wars that were constantly going on and found no difficulty in transferring their allegiance to any new king or any new power. The important towns no doubt suffered in the wars waged and were frequently devastated entirely. But the villages were undisturbed and remained self-contained in their administration, having their hereditary headmen and head registrars corresponding to the Patels and the Patwaris of modern days. From the Harsha-Charita it appears that the former's name was अक्षपलिक. and the latter's name was करणिक़. Karana is obviously the register of tenancies in the village and the Patawari is still called in the south करणम् and करणिक़ and Kulakarana in the Deccan also means the same thing. The word Patil is derived in my opinion from अक्षपटल which word occurs in Kautilya's Artha-Śāstra also (page 62) and which there plainly means an office building for keeping records (अक्षपटलमध्यक्ष:प्रत्यङ्मुखमुदङ्मुखं वा विभक्तोस्थाननिबंधपुस्तकस्थाने कारयेत). It seems clear from this that there were record offices or government offices so to speak in every village. In fact ग्रामाक्षपटल would mean something like the Chavdi of a Deccan village, where government work is ordinarily done and the man in charge of it was called ग्रामाक्षपलिक. He is thus clearly the headman of the village, and had a right to present nazar to the kings as described by Bāṇa. (H. C. 274) तत्रस्थस्य चास्य ग्रामाक्षपलिक: सकलकरणपरिकर: करोतु देवो दिवसग्रहणमथैवावन्ध्यशासन:शासनानामित्यभिधाय वृषाङ्कामभिनवघटितां हाटक मयीं मुद्रां समुपनिन्थे. The word Mahākshapatalika occurs in a grant of Dharasena dated A. D. 512, see Corp. Ins. III p. 180, and indicates that there was a chief revenue or record officer for the whole state. In this way the ordered nature of the administration is testified to by the maintenance of records in every vlllage, town, chief town and the capital. Hiuen Tsang also states that regular records were maintained in each kingdom. The ग्रामाक्षपलिक is, therefore, the parent of the modern Patel and was the chief government official in each village. This village officer is also mentioned in another inscription ( Corp. Ins. III p. 257 ) where the word अन्यग्रामाक्षपलाधिकृत occurs and indicates the appointment of the officer in every village.

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The existence of other village-officers or rather servants is indicated by the word सकलकरणपरिकर in the extract from Bāṇa given above. The headman of the village (Patel) registrar (Patwari,) and the other servants of the village were apparently hereditary (or Dhruva a word occurring in Gujarat grants and still used in Gujarat) and they constituted a unit of administration which was self-contained and sufficient. They collected the chief land-tax viz. one-sixth of corn and also the minor taxes which were rather numerous and inconvenient. We may quote here the usual expression used in the grants of villages of that period and try to understand them. Take for instance the Khoh grant of Mahārāja Hastin (Corp. Ins. Vol. III p. 96) सोद्रंग: सोपरिकर: अचाटभटप्रवेश: or the grant of Dharasena of A. D. 571, (Corp. Ins. III page 167) where it is said that the land was granted to the grantee सोद्रंगं सोपरिकरं सवातभूतधान्यहिरण्यादेयं सोत्पद्यमानविष्टिकम्, or the grant of Śīlāditya VII (Crop. Ins. III p. 179) सोद्रङ्ग: सोपरिकर: सोत्पद्यमानविष्टिक: सभूतवातप्रत्या- देय: etc. In all these the word उद्रंग must be taken to mean the principal tax i. e. the land-tax. This word has not been yet traced by me to any ancient works. But as Dr. Fleet has suggested in a footnote at page 97 of the Corp. Ins. Vol III, it is plain that it means the chief income from the village. उपरिकर seems, in my opinion, to mean extra taxes and not taxes on extra cultivators as Dr. Fleet suggests.

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What these extra taxes were may be discovered by the aid of the Smritis and the inscriptions also in this volume The Manu Smriti provides for taxes on various articles besides corn in the following ślokas—आददीताथ षड्भागंमांसमधुसर्पिषाम्। गन्धौषधिरसानां च पुष्पमूलफलस्यच॥ पत्रशाकतृणानां च चर्मणां वैदलस्य च। मृण्मयानां च भाण्डानां सर्वस्याश्ममयस्य च ७-३१-३४. These things may be taken to be such things as were sold and not things which any person reared or produced for his own consumption. That these taxes were actually levied in the 7th century appears probable from epigraphic records of the time. The Chammak copperplate grant (Corp. Ins. Vol. III p. 238) deserves to be quoted here at length. It grants the village, अकरादायी अभटछात्रप्रवेश्यः अपारंपरगोवलीवर्द्ः अपुष्पक्षीरसदोहः अचारासनचर्माङ्गः अलवणाक्लिन्नक्रेणिखनकः सर्वविष्टिपरिहारपारिहतः सनिधिः सोपनिधिः सक्लप्तः सोपक्लृप्तः etc. This may be translated as follows.—‘The village is not to pay taxes. It is not to be entered by soldiers or the police. It is not to give the increase of cows and bulls. It is not to be subject to the payment on flowers and milk or on pasturage, hides and charcoal. It is not to pay tax on salt or wet salt, on sale and purchase and on mine produce. It is free of forced labour of every kind. It is granted with treasure trove and other minor finds and with klipta and minor klipta. (I follow here the translation by Dr. Fleet with some exceptions).

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The words निधि and क्लृप्त followed by the words उपनिधि and उपक्लृप्त meaning the same things but of a minor kind suggest that उद्रंग and उपरिकर may also be taken to be the same tax on the chief produce viz. that of land and on minor products such as flowers, fruit, milk, etc. brought for sale as is provided for in the Manu Smriti. How the उद्रंग or land tax was levied, whether by apportioning from the actual produce or by average yield, is not clear. Land was certainly measured, for the measurements of land are often given in inscriptions of the time. Thus in Cop. Ins. Vol. III No. 28 grant of Dharasena p. 166 lands in several villages with particular names even are given and the measurements mentioned are Padāvarta Śatam (100) or Padāvarta Navati (90) or Padāvarta Aṣṭāviṃśati (28). Padāvarta probably means so many square paces, pada being not the actual foot but the pace or two feet. These fields are small indeed but they belong, it must be remembered, to Gujarat where land is very fertile. For other less fertile tracts the measurements must be different, for instance the grant of Pravarasena (Corp. Ins. Vol. III 241) made in the Bhojakata Rājya (or modern Berar) a village is measured by राजमान or royal measure. What this royal measure was is not mentioned; the word used is राजमानिक. भूमिसहस्रायभि: 8000 and Dr. Fleet thinks that the name of the measure was Bhūmi. Apparently however भूमि is a plot of land.

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The 8000 measures of land of the village granted to 1000 Brahmins would probably constitute a large modern village of about 4000 acres and the measure would thus approximate to a Bigha or ½ acre of modern times. The word निवर्तन (Nivartana) is not found in grants given in this volume.* That word however appears to be a very old one. It occurs in the Kautilīya Arthaśāstra at page 107 where its meaning is given in the following table of space measures; 4 cubits = 1 Danda (stick) 10 Dandas = 1 Rajju (chain) and 3 Rajjus = 1 nivartana. This makes the nivartana equal to 120 cubits i.e. 180 feet or 60 yards length. The field or square nivartana would be a square area with nivartana as one side i.e. 3600 sq. yards. As acre consists of 4840 sq. yards which makes the acre equal to approximately 1 ⅓ nivartanas. The measure of the bigha of the Mahomedans was also based on the danda or stick, being taken to be 20 sticks long by 20 sticks broad and was nearly one half of the nivartana. Perhaps the Bhūmi mentioned in the above grant may be the nivartana which certainly was an old measure. In whatever manner realised, the उद्रंग or land tax was received in kind and probably the उपरिकर or minor taxes were also received in kind. The grain was stored by a special officer of the State called the कोष्ठागाराध्यक्ष, who was also in charge of the minor articles. These were either immediately sold or were stored for future use, according to their nature.

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Interesting details of the manner of sale or storage are to be found in the Kautilīya Artha Śāstra, pages 93-99.

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∗ It occurs in many grants of older date in the south (even Nasik cave inscriptions). It thus was preserved in the south and west; in the north other names had taken its place.

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Let us next try to understand village life and administration from inscriptions as also from the Harsha-Charita. The grants of villages were addressed either to the villagers or to government officers; thus the grants at page 193 and 195 Corp. Ins. Vol. III are addressed to the villagers ( प्रतिवासिनः कुटुम्बिनः समाज्ञापयति ) who are ordered to pay the taxes to the grantees. The villagers are said to belong to all castes among whom the Brahmins were the foremost (see Corp. Ins. Vol. III p. 216 प्रतिवासिनश्च ब्राह्मणोत्तराः). Where grants are addressed to government officers, the latter are asked not to interfere with the enjoyment of the villages by the grantees. The grantees in their turn were required to be of good behaviour. The following expressions in the Chammak grant ( Corp. Ins. Vol. III page 239 ) are very interesting. अद्रोहप्रवृत्तानां अब्राह्मणचौरपारदारिकराजापथ्यकारिप्रभृतीनां असं- ग्रामं कुर्वतां अन्यग्रामेष्वनपराधानामानचन्द्रार्ककालीयः which has been translated as follows:-“The grant will last with the moon and the sun provided that the grantees commit no treason against the state, that they are not slayers of Brahmins, thieves, adulterers, poisoners of kings, that they do not wage war or commit offences in other villages, otherwise the grants were revocable.” This condition not only proves the moral and ordered life in the villages but also shows the circumspect nature of the administration.

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The chief requirements of Indian villagers for their material well-being are salt, fuel and grass or grazing. The villagers appear to have had a free and sufficient supply of these things, though these when taken for sale to the market were subject to the tax of 1/6. We have already seen that inam villages are often expressly stated to be free from tax on salt both dry and wet and on grass. It seem there was then no monopoly of salt-manufacture by government. In many villages there were wells of salt water and in some places salt was dug out from hills. Such quantities were of course limited and salt manufactured on a large scale for sale was an important commodity for taxation which even the ancient governments did not disregard. As for grass and grazing, there were apparently common grazing grounds in every village. Pasture-plots enclosed and giving valuable grass are noticed in Smritis and are called *vivita*. When grass was taken from these for sale to the market it paid the government the usual tax. Lastly, fuel was obtainable by the villagers for their own use in the forests of their own villages. Each village had its own forest. And there were forests on the borders of kingdoms invariably. These forests are treated by the Smritis as ownerless. However portions of forests called *Nāgavana* where elephants abounded were preserved. But other forests and village forests were open free for villagers. Bāṇa describes tracts bordering on forests and forest villages and the forests themselves with that love of interesting detail which constitutes the singular charm of the Harsha Charita. Some of these details are worth quoting here. Unrestrained forest guards often seized the hatchets of wood cutters of *other* villages going to cut wood in forests (अनियंत्रितवनपालह्रियमाणपरग्रामीणकपि्रककुठारै: H. C. page 304). There were small fields in these forests tilled not by ploughs and bullocks but by hand spades. There were *prapas* or water-providing huts at the entrance of waterless forests. In some places great heat was created by the burning of wood for charcoal. At some places you would meet with bands of wood-cutters with bodies exercised with the constant cutting of wood, having long hatchets on their shoulders to which were slung their breakfast baskets. At others you would meet with people carrying loads of honey, *mākshika*, feathers of peacocks, honey-combs, barks of khadira tree, &c. as also women of forest tribes having on their heads basketfuls of forest flowers and fruit, going to villages to sell them. These and other details show that people had free access to forests for jungle produce and jungle tribes freely took forest produce for sale to the bordering separate villages.

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Villages thus in those days were usually well regulated and self-sufficient communities whose life was easy, and well ordered. They were not however quite without their own troubles though petty. The usual pest of the villages then as now was the policeman and the soldier; the Chāta* and the Bhata as they are called in grants. The grantees of inam villages were, therefore, specially granted the privilege that their villages would not be entered by the policeman and the soldier. The word अचाटभटप्रवेश्य occurs in almost every grant and conveys this important privilege to inam donees. Sometimes an exception was made by the word चोरवर्ज्यम्. Dr. Fleet translates it by ‘with the exception of fines imposed on thieves.’ I would however translate it by ‘with the exception that villages may be entered for the purpose of pursuing or catching thieves.’ The exception plainly relates to the प्रवेश or entry of village. The word द्रोह is sometimes further added e. g. चोरद्रोहवर्जः in Khoh grant of Samkshobha (Corps Ins. III p. 115), and it shows that the right to enter inam villages extended to the pursuit or detection of traitors. It would be natural to expect that the state would not allow, as has been already noticed, inam villages to which the privilege of ‘non-entry by policemen and soldiers was granted, being the centres of the activity of robbers or traitors. The state villages of course remained open to the unavoidable oppression of the policeman and the soldier. The latter, however, must have troubled them at rare intervals only that is when on march or doing fight.

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The villages were usually prosperous in spite of these occasional troubles; and they were expected to perform certain charitable duties. The prosperous village was expected to keep a Sadāvarta or alms’ house where grain was given to every needy person every day. It was also expected to keep open a *prapā* or water-house, where water was served to every thirsty person throughout the day. It was also expected to open a rest house or *Sabhā* and a *prāgvaṃśa* or sacrificial room. Bāṇa in describing the prosperous condition of the Śrīkantha or Thanesar kingdom under Prabhākara Vardhana refers to this duty in the expression बहिरुपचितविकटसभसत्रप्राग्वंशमण्डपैः प्रसूतार्माव ग्रामैः (H.C. p. 176) which means that outside every village were erected spacious mandaps for *sabha*, *satra*, *prapā* and *prāgvaṃśa*. These mandaps were of course temporary sheds erected for temporary purposes, that is, to be kept open during the summer and winter seasons and not during the rainy season and autumn, when travellers were not expected to move or be in need.

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∗ The word Chāta or Chātra as it some times occurs means unquestionably the police-man. It occurs in H. C. also (p. 286) as noticed further on. It occurs also in the Yājñavalkya Smṛiti, but I am afraid it is wrongly interpreted by Vijñāneśvara who lived in the 12th Century.

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We will now pass on from the village to the Vishaya or Tehsil. As the headman of the village was its chief officer, so for the Vishaya there was necessarily a chief government officer called Vishayapati in several inscriptions (*e. g.* विषयपतिसर्वनागस्यान्तर्वेद्यां) (Corp. Ins. III p. 70). Manu declares that there should be a chiefman for each village, a chief man for ten villages, for twenty, for one hundred and for one thousand. (VII, 115).

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ग्रामस्याधिपतिं कुर्यात् दशग्रामपतिं तथा ।
विंशतीशं शतेशं च सहस्रपतिमेव च ॥

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This is perhaps academical but we have clear references to the Vishayapati in records and the Vishaya consisted of a number of villages, the average of which was a hundred. The district *i. e.* Bhukti or Mandala may be taken to contain one thousand villages more or less, and there was a district officer also called Mandaleśvara or Rāshtrapati. The Vishayapati and the Mandaleśvara represented the king and hence they often are called Rājasthānīya in inscriptional records.* Subordinate to these there were other officers also, chiefly a police officer and a magistrate. The duty of catching thieves and exterminating robbers was always considered paramount and police stations were established for every ten or less number of villages as provided for even in the Manusmriti VII, 114. ( द्वयोस्त्रयाणां पंचानां मध्ये गुल्ममधिष्ठितम् । तथा ग्रामशतानां च कुर्याद्राष्ट्रस्य संग्रहम् । ) The police officer of 100 villages or rather of the Vishaya ( Tehsil or Taluka ) is called Chauroddharanika (चौरोद्धरणिक), while the magistrate or dispenser of punishment was called दण्डनायक. These names occur in several inscriptions of the time. Of course, in different states, names of officers sometimes differed, but apparently the system was generally the same. We give below some names of officers appearing in the Deo-Barnak inscription (of Bengal) Corp. Ins. Vol. III p. 216 नगरभुक्तौ वालवीवैपयिक श्रीवोपलिक्शान्तःपातिवारुणिकाग्रामः... दूत सीमकर्मकर मध्य राजपुत्रराजामात्यमहादण्डनायक महाप्रतीहार. (illegible) प्रमाता...कुमारामात्यराजस्थानीयोपरिक...धिक चौरोद्धरणिक दाण्डिकदण्डपाशिक. The officers whose names can well be ascertained in the above are the दूत or envoy, the सीमकर्मकर or marker of boundaries, राजपुत्र the heir apparent or king's eldest son, राजामात्य king's ministers, महादण्डनायक the chief dispenser of punishments for the whole state, महाप्रतिहारी the chief usher, प्रमाता the measurer, कुमारामात्य minister in charge of princes, राजस्थानीय the representatives of the king (i. e. District and Taluka or Tehsil officers), चौरोद्धरणिक the pursuers of robbers, दाण्डिक magistrates and दण्डपाशिक executers of sentences. These names indicate that almost all departments of administration which are necessary for a well ordered, civilized government existed in those days. The boundary settlement officer, District and Taluka chief officer, the surveyor or measurer, the magistrate, the police officer, and the दण्डपाशिक or jailor are there and do the work required of them in a complex administration.

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∗ See *e.g.* Corp. Ins. III p. 651. (राजस्थानीयवृत्या &c.)

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It does not appear that in ancient India there was any distinction observed in civil and criminal cases. Probably civil cases were very few and far between, disputes being settled by Panchayats; but when they went to the state, either to the king's own court or to the court of the chief judicial officer, they were treated as cases for fine, the party losing having to pay a penalty so to speak. The Rājasthānīya or the Mahādandanāyaka or the chief magistrate probably decided all such cases, on oral or documentary evidence and by the advice or opinion of assessors or what is called the Parishad. We have of course no reference to the Parishad in the inscriptions but probably the provisions of the Smritis must have been observed. Hiuen Tsang describes that in case of doubt ordeals were resorted to, and the four kinds of ordeals are worth being quoted here.

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“These are by water, by fire, by weighing and by poison. In the water ordeal the accused is put in one sack and a stone in another, then the two sacks are connected and thrown into a deep stream; if the sack containing the stone floats and the other sinks, the man's guilt is proven. The fire ordeal requires the accused to kneel and tread on hot iron, to take it in his hand and lick it. If he is innocent he is not hurt, but he is burnt if he is guilty. In the weighing ordeal the accused is weighed against a stone; and if the latter is lighter the charge is false, if otherwise it is true. The poison ordeal requires that the right hind leg of a ram be cut off and according to the portion assigned to the accused to eat, poisons are put into the leg, and if the man is innocent he survives, and if not the poison takes effect.” Watters' Vol. I, p. 172.

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The appointment of officers and of courts requires the maintenance of records as we have already stated and that such records were maintained is proved by the testimony of Hiuen Tsang. He says (Watters' Vol. I page 154) “As to their archives and records, there are separate custodians of these. The official annals and state papers are called collectively ‘nīlapītha.’ In these good and bad are recorded and instances of public calamity and good fortune are set forth in detail.” The name nīlapītha reminds one of the blue state publications of the British government. The historian of Kashmir, Kalhana states that he wrote his history from the nīlamata. The existence and maintenance of such records should dispel the common notion that India had no historical records. Unfortunately these have been lost in the convulsions attending the conquest of India by the Mahomedans.

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The Vishaya or Ahāra (Gujarat) or Nadu (south India) was like the village a fixed quantity which did not vary with the growth or decay of kingdoms. They had fixed natural boundaries and were in fact natural divisions of the country. They corresponded to the modern Tehsils or Talukas and like the villages exist in my opinion in the same form now, as they existed in the 7th century. The number of villages in each Vishaya was thus naturally fixed. The total number of villages in a Bhukti or Mandala was also normally fixed, though perhaps the extent of a Bhukti was more subject to modifications than the extent of the Vishaya. Several Bhuktis or Mandalas corresponding to modern districts constituted a kingdom i. e. the Deśa or Rāshtra, and the number of villages in a Deśa was also approximately fixed. We hence see in ancient inscriptions countries described as consisting of so many thousand or hundred villages and gradually this number became a traditional one. In the Aihole inscription the Mahārāshtra country is said to consist of 99,000 villages and is also described as comprising* three Mahārāshtras. What these three Mahārāshtras were we are not told. But if we take the larger Mahārāshtra subject to the Chālukya Pulakeśin as consisting of the Nagpur and Berar divisions of the C. P. and central and southern divisions of the Bombay presidency with the two districts of Thana and Surat of the Northern division and the Maratha districts of the Nizam's state, we have at present the following number of villages in these:—Nagpur and Berar Dvns. 16565, Central and Southern divisions 17699, Nizam state Maratha Districts 17000 approximately and Thana and Surat 4000—total 55264. This number falls short considerably of 99000 villages assigned to the Mahārāshtra of Pulakeśin but perhaps a larger portion of the Hydrabad State was included in the ancient kingdom of the Chalukyas.† The discrepancy would not be very consider-

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* अगमदधिपतित्वं यो महाराष्ट्रकाणां । नवनवतिसहस्रग्रामभाजां त्रयाणाम् ॥

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∗ The same kingdom but of the later Chālukyas is also described in old records as Rattapādi seven and a half lakhs including the Āndhra Mandala; we will discuss this number in a note.

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able, supposing even that Mahārāshtra under Pulakesin was more flourishing than under the British government. The number usually attached to certain names of Rāshtras or Mandalas is, however, not always the number of villages in that Rāshtra but something else, unless it is expressly stated that the number relates to villages (see note at the end).

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We have thus far elucidated the civil administration in a kingdom as it existed in the 7th century. The unit was the village with its head-man अक्षपलिक or महत्तर and its registrar the करणिक. The Vishaya or Taluka consisted of a certain number of villages and there were officers for each Taluka. These were विषयपति, the चौरोंद्धरणिक and the दण्डनायक. Similar officers were appointed to the Bhukti or District, and there were chief officers for the whole state who were called महाक्षपलिक, महादण्डनायक and so on. These officers were paid by the assignment of certain lands or villages or towns even as their grade rose higher. The Manu Smriti provides that the grāmika (headman) should get for the year what the king gets for one day and the head of a hundred villages should get one whole village for his pay and of a thousand, one town. (यानि राजप्रदेयानि प्रत्यहं ग्रामवासिभिः। अन्यान्येन्धनादीनि ग्रामिकस्तानवाप्नुयात्॥ ग्रामं ग्रामशाताध्यक्षः सहस्राधिपातः पुरम्॥7, 118, 119.) This direction appears to have still been in force in the 7th century as Hiuen Tsang records "that ministers of state and common officers all have their portion of land and are maintained by the cities assigned to them."

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