The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c13.s3.7

v2.c13.s3.7

The vishaya and koṭṭam were administrative subdivisions; the Karma-rāshtra, later Kammanāḍu-vishaya, and the Bōya-Koṭṭams are examples of these.⁵ The Chendalūr grant of Sarvalōkāśraya is addressed to all naiyogika-vallabas, a very general term containing no indication of their duties, as well as to the grāmēyakas, the residents of the village which was the subject of the grant.⁶ The manneyas are another class of officials occasionally mentioned;⁷ they held assignments of land or revenue in different villages, but nothing more is really known about them. In fact there is good reason to hold that there was no settled administration worthy of the name in the kingdom as a whole; civil war and foreign invasion frequently harried the land; and the territory was parcelled into a number of small principalities held by a warlike nobility comprising such collateral branches of the Cāḷukyas themselves as the houses of Elamañchili, Piṭhāpuram, and Mudu-goṇḍa, lines dynastically connected with them like the Sarōnāthas of Koḷanu and the Haihayas of Kona, and others who had been raised to high rank with a corresponding award of territory in recognition of loyal services rendered to the ruling family. The Velaṇāḍus, Koṇḍapaḍumaṭis, Chāgis, Parichchhēdis, and others belonged to this latter class. All of them paid allegiance and tribute to the Vengi ruler when he was strong, but were equally ready to intrigue with the enemies of the suzerain or take sides in the numerous wars of succession when weakness was apparent. The villages, however, must have carried on their local affairs in the traditional manner, not very much affected by the political storms blowing over the country; their economy was necessarily simple and the references to *grāmeyakas* and *rāṣṭrakūṭa-pramukhas* show that the people lived under the guidance of their natural leaders, the men of substance and character who happened to be living in their midst. In the Pabhuparru grant of Śaktivarman I we come across an instance of the king removing a *grāmaṇi* for disloyal and treasonable conduct, and appointing another in his place.¹ Even in these troubled times, the central government was not, as it could indeed never afford to be, out of touch with life in the villages, the cells of the body politic.