History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c12.21

v1.c12.21

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-