History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c12.7.1

v1.c12.7.1

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.