History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s22.17

v3.c41.s22.17

Passing on to describe the revenue officers, we have the old name Vishayapati for the Tahsil officer in almost all grants. The Rāshṭrapati is mentioned as the District officer in Deccan grants while in Bengal grants he may be indicated by the Rājasthānīya. The Gāhaḍavāla grants strangely enough do not mention these officers though for the Paṭṭalā there must have been a chief officer. In Malwa we have the name Man-daloi still surviving which is the Prākṛit form of Maṇḍalapati. Thus generally there was a revenues officer with name ending in pati. He was probably not hereditary but removable at the will of the king or the chief revenue minister. It is worthy of notice that the names Deshmukh and Deshpande which were in use in the Deccan even in Mahomedan times and are still in use there, are not found in inscriptions of this period. Though they are Sanskrit and not Mahomedan names, they from this appear to have come into use in Mahomedan times. Further there is no officer corresponding to Deshpande who kept the record of the District in the mediæval inscriptions. Record certainly was kept in the village as the village record keeper named Karaṇika is often mentioned in inscriptions. We have already shown in Vol. I (p. 130) that Akshapaṭala, according to Kautiiya's Arathaśāstra was revenue record house and Akshapaṭalika was the head of the office in the village; a word which probably was shortened and changed into Paṭṭakila of Malwa inscriptions. It is the origin of the modern word Patel or Pātil. The head of the village is called in inscriptions of other kingdoms, grāmapati (J. B. LXIX p. 71) or grāmakūṭa or simply Mahattara (the modern form of which is Mhātre in Konkan). The Patel was assisted in the village administration by the Karaṇika (keeper of register of tenants), a word which survives to this day as Karṇika of Konkan, Kulakarṇi of the Deccan and Karaṇam of South India and called Kāyastha in Northern India, see Parmardideva's inscription (E. I. IV p.). The other village servants mentioned in it are 1 Dūta or messenger, 2 physician and 3 Mahattara (Patel) down to 4 Meda and 5 Chāṇḍāla. Among villagers there were Brahmins also who are usually particularly mentioned as in Paramāra insc. (I. A. XVI p. 204) which simply addresses itself to Vaiśayika or Tahsil officers, the Paṭṭakila and the country people (Jānapada) Brahmins and other than Brahmins.' For towns or Paṭṭana there were special officers (E. I. IV p. 101). These village and town officers must have been hereditary as at present.