Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c19: XV. Caurāsī

Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c19

Language: English

XV. Caurāsī

c19.1

Caurāsī as a geographical unit indicating a group of 84 villages is known from different parts of India. There is a group of villages called Bhināikī Caurāsī near Ajmer in Rajasthan and it is probably mentioned as Caturaśīti in the fragmentary Barli inscription¹ of the first century B. C. Caurāsī is also a Pargana in the Mirzapur District of U.P., while Corāsī (Caurāsī) is a Subdivision of the Surat District of Bombay. There is a village called Caurāsī in the Sadar Subdivision of the Purī District of Orissa. This village likewise seems to have been originally the headquarters of a geographical and administrative unit consisting of 84 villages. That it had some importance in the past is possibly indicated by its yielding of a copper-plate inscription of the Bhauma-Kara monarch Śivakara II who flourished about the end of the ninth century A.D.² It seems that there are other areas similarly called Caurāsī in different parts of the country. Caturaśīti, the Sanskrit form of Caurāsī, is found in a number of ancient Indian records.

c19.2

¹ J.B.R.S., Vol. XL, Part i, pp. 3-4.

c19.3

² Cf. J.B.O.R.S., Vol. XIV, pp. 292 ff.

c19.4

A copper-plate inscription, dated Śaka 734 (812-13 A.D.), of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa chief Kakka II Suvarṇavarṣa of Lāṭa or Gujarāt was published in the *Indian Antiquary*, Vol. XII, pp. 156 ff. It records the grant of the village of Vaḍapadraka in the Aṅkoṭṭaka eighty-four (*Aṅkoṭṭaka-caturaśīti-antarggata-Vaḍapadrakābhidhāna-grāma*). Aṅkoṭṭaka is modern Akoṭa, a suburb of Baroda (Vaḍapadraka). The Set-Mahet plate³ of the Gāhaḍavāla king Govindacandra, dated Vikrama Saṃvat 1186 (1130 A.D.), records the grant of certain villages in the Pattalā or district called Vādā (or, Vājā) Caturaśīti. Another grant⁴ of Madanapāla dated V.S. 1164 (1108 A.D.), similarly speaks of the gift of a village in Māṇighapura-Caturāsikā, in which Caturāsikā is no doubt the same as Caturāśitikā or Caurāsī. It should, however, not be supposed that only the word 'eighty-four' is associated with the names of districts. We have numerous other numbers similarly associated with geographical units.¹ A Pratijāgaraṇaka or Pargaṇā within the dominions of the Paramāra kings of Malwa is called Saptāśīti-pratijāgaraṇaka (i.e. Pargaṇā consisting of eighty-seven villages) in an inscription of V.S. 1331.² But such numbers as 87 were not as popular as 84 in the context of geographical names.

c19.5

³ Ep. Ind., Vol. XI, pp. 20 ff.

c19.6

⁴ Ibid., Vol. XXXIII, p. 176. Cf. Ratnapura-caturāśikā and Caturuttara-caturāśikā in Gujarāt (Majumdar, *Chaulukyas*, pp. 211-12.)

c19.7

¹ Cf. e.g., the Paṭṭalā named Rudamaua-bayālīsi in Govindacandra's Kamauli plate of V. S. 1190 (1133 A.D.), published in *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. IV, pp. 111-12. In this name *bayālīsi* means 'forty-two'. An inscription (*Ind. Ant.*, Vol. XVIII., pp. 344 ff.) of Paramāra Udayāditya, dated V. S. 1229 (1171 A.D.), mentions the area around Bhilsa in the former Gwalior State as Bhāillasvāmi-mahādvādaśaka-maṇḍala (i.e. the district called Bhāillasvāmin consisting of twelve subdivisions). It also mentions a subdistrict consisting of sixty-four villages as the Bhṛṅgārikā-catuḥṣaṣṭi *pathaka* (cf. *Ep. Ind* Vol., XXX, pp. 210-11). A grant of the Somavaṁśī king Mahāśivagupta Yayāti I (*c.* 970-1000 A.D.) of Orissa mentions a district called Ṣaṇṇavati, *i.e.* ninety-six (No. 27 of *A.R. E.p.*, 1052-53, App. A).

c19.8

² *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXII, p. 140.

c19.9

In the inscriptions of the Kannaḍa-speaking area, territorial units are often mentioned along with a number exactly as in Bhināikī Caurāsī and Aṅkoṭṭaka-caturāśiti; e.g., Gaṅgavāḍi ninety-six thousands, Raṭṭappāḍi seven and a half lakhs, Banavāsi twelve thousands, Alande one thousand, Purigere three hundreds, etc., etc. Similar instances are sometimes found also in the records of other parts of the country. Although there is possibly some exaggeration in some of these cases speaking of very big numbers, there is no doubt that the reference in such cases is to villages which may have been in many cases very small or even nominal. As regards territorial units with smaller, numbers, we may mention Nirugundagi twelve, Puriddha ten, Tamba six, Koṇḍavati two, etc., etc.

c19.10

Considering the abnormally high numbers mentioned with some of the names and the fact that it is palpably impossible to believe that the small district of Gaṅgavāḍi could actually claim more than only a fraction of 96000 'villages' if a village is understood in its modern sense, we were formerly reluctant to take the word grāma, even when specifically mentioned in such cases, in the sense of ‘a village’; cf. the passage trayāṇāṁ Mahārāṣṭrakāṇaṁ navanavati-sahasra-grāma-bhājāṁ occurring in the celebrated Aihole inscription¹ of Pulakeśin II and referring to the three Mahārāṣṭras as having no less than 99000 grāmas. Thus in the name Veṅgīpura-viṣaya-grāma-sahasra, sometimes called Veṅgī-sahasra, we were inclined to interpret the word grāma as ‘what is the subject of an assessment’.² This appeared to be justified by the fact that the Malkapuram inscription³ of Śaka 1183 (1261 A.D.) refers to a grant of no less than three lakhs of grāmas in Ḍahala-maṇḍala (the modern Jubbulpur area) lying between the Ganges and the Narmadā by the Kalachuri king Yuvarāja (I or II, probably the latter) in favour of a Śaiva saint named Sadbhāvaśambhu,⁵ as it is impossible to believe that even the whole kingdom of the Kalachuri king had nearly 50000 villages in the modern sense of the term. There is, however, some evidence to show that the word grāma was used in such cases in the sense of a village whatever its size and nature may have been.

c19.11

¹ Cf. ibid., Vol. VI, pp. 1 ff.

c19.12

² Cf. The Successors of the Sātavāhanas, p. 400.

c19.13

³ J.A.H.R.S., Vol. IV, pp. 156-57.

c19.14

In the Aland (ancient Alande) inscription of Yuvarāja Mallikārjuna, published in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 31 ff., Alande itself is mentioned as the modala-vāḍa or ‘foremost village’ of Alande-sāsira or ‘Alande one thousand.’ This makes it clear that the geographical and administrative unit of Alande consisted of one thousand vāḍas or villages, of which the village of Alande was the foremost; that is to say, it was the headquarters of the district in question. It has been reported to us that the people of Kuknūr even now quote an old list, traditionally handed down, of the thirty villages which formed the ancient administrative unit called ‘Kuknūr thirty’ and that all these villages can be traced in the area around Kuknūr even to-day. It is also interesting to note that an inscription mentions Kuknūr as the foremost (i.e. headquaters) of thirty grāmas.¹

c19.15

⁴ Cf. भागीरथीन्मदयोर्मध्यं डाहलमण्डलम्....तस्मै निस्पृहचेतसे कलचुरिक्षमापालचूडामणिग्रामाणो नृपतिभिक्षां तिलक्षीं ददौ।

c19.16

¹ त्रिंशद्ग्रामाधिपतिश्रीकुक्कुनूर (J.B.R.A.S., Vol. XII, 1876, p. 43).

c19.17

The conclusion seems to be supported by a section of the Skanda Purāṇa² apparently interpolated into the original work sometime in the medieval period.³ This section says how the nava-khaṇḍa Bhārata, i.e. Bhārata-varṣa consisting of nine divisions, was subdivided into seventy-two vibhedas or subdivisions, and quotes a list of the seventy-two (actually, seventy-five) countries together with the number of grāmas contained in each one of them. The list is introduced by the verse :

c19.18

² Māheśvara-khaṇḍa, Kumārikā-khaṇḍa, Ch. 39, verses 127 ff.

c19.19

³ J.R.A.S.B, Vol. XIV, p. 25.

c19.20

तेषां नामानि ग्रामांश्च पत्तनानि च फाल्गुन ।
वेलाकूलानि संख्यां च वक्ष्यामि तव तत्त्वतः ॥

c19.21

and ends with the following passage :

c19.22

द्वाप्ततिर्मी देशा ग्रामसंख्या प्रकीर्तिताः ।

c19.23

The second of the two passages is followed by the statement that the entire Bhārata-khaṇḍa had 967200000 pattanas (towns) and 36000 velākūlas (harbours). It can hardly be doubted that the word grāma has been used in this context in the sense of ‘a village.’ But the fact that the list speaks only of grāmas and not of pattanas, etc., seems to suggest that for the purpose of enumeration the latter also were counted as grāmas. The list further shows that the traditional or conventional number of grāmas in a country as given in it could hardly have been true if the word grāma is taken exactly in its modern sense.

c19.24

We quote below the list of countries together with the number of villages in each one of them.

c19.25

c19.26

7. Gājaṇaka or Mājaṇaka (i.e. Ghaznī or Ghazna) 72 ,,
8. Gauḍa deśa 18 ,,
9. Kāmarūpa 9 ,,
10. Ḍāhala or Veda (sic. Cedi) 9 ,,
11. Kāmtipura 9 ,,
12. Mācīpura (sic. Kāmcipura) 9 ,,
13. Oḍḍiyāna deśa (in the Swat valley) 9 or 7 lakhs
14. Jālaṃdhara 9 ,,
15. Lohapura (i.e. Lahore) 9 ,,
19. Pāṃbipura 7 ,,
17. Raṭarāja (i. e. Raṭṭa-rājya, the Rāṣṭra-kūṭa kingdom) 7 ,,
18. Harīāla (sic. Hariyāṇa, the Delhi region) 5 ,,
19. Draḍa or Draḍasya (sic. Draviḍa) viṣaya 3½ ,,
20. Vaṃbhaṇavāhaka (i.e. Brāhmaṇavāha or Bahmanābād in the Hyderabad region of Sind) 3½ ,, 21 Nilapura 21 thousands 22 Amala or Mala viṣaya (redundant; see No. 4) 1 lakh
23. Nareṃdu (sic. Varendra) deśa (see No. 72 below) 1¼ lakhs
24. Atilāṅgala (sic. Jāṅgala) deśa 1¼ ,,
25. Mālava 118092
26. Sayaṃbhara (Śākambhara) deśa 1¼ lakhs
27. Mevāḍa (Medapāṭa) 1¼ ,,
28. Vāguri 80 thousands
29. Gujarātra (sic. Gurjaratrā, probably modern Gujarāt) 70 ,,
30. Pāṃḍu (Pāṇḍya) viṣaya 70 ,,
31. Jahāhuti (Jejābhukti, the Khajurāho region of Bundelkhand) 42 ,,
32. Kāśmira 68 ,,
33. Kaumkaṇa (Konkan) 63 ,,
34. Laghu-Kaumkaṇa (Smaller Konkan) 1422
35. Sindhu 20 thousands 36. Kaccha *maṇḍala* 1422
37. Saurāṣṭra (Kathiawar) 55 thousands
38. Lāḍa (Lāṭa, the Nausari-Bharoch region of Gujarāt) 21 ,,
39. Atisindhu 10 ,,
40. Aśvamukha 10 ,,
41. Ekapāda 10 ,,
42. Sūryamukha or Śūrpanakha (sic. Sūrpāraka, the Sopara region in the Thana District, Bombay) 10 ,,
43. Ekabāhu *deśa* 10 ,,
44. Saṃjāyu *deśa* (Sañjān in the Thana District ?) 10 ,,
45. Śiva (Śibi) *deśa* 10 ,,
46. Kālahayaṃjaya (Kālañjara ?) 10 ,,
47. Liṅgodbhava *deśa* 10 ,,
48. Bhadra 10 ,,
49. Devabhadra 10 ,,
50. Cāṭa 36 ,,
51. Virāṭa (the Jaipur-Alwar-Bharatpur region of Rājasthān) 36 ,,
52. Yamakoṭi (mythical city placed 90° east of the meridian of Laṅkā) 36 ,,
53. Rāmaka (Romaka ?) *deśa* 18 crores
54. Tomara 1¼ lakhs
55. Karṇāṭa 1¼ ,,
56. Yugala or Puṅgala 1¼ ,,
57. Strī-rājya 5 ,,
58. Pulastya or Mulastya *viṣaya* 10 ,,
59. Kāmboja 10 lakhs
60. Kośala (North or South Kosala, possibly the latter in the Raipur-Bilaspur-Sambalpur region in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa) 10 ,,
61. Bāhlika 4 ,,
62. Laṅkā *deśa* 36 thousands
63. Kuru *deśa* 46 thousands 64. Kirāta-vijayojaya (sic. Kirāta deśa) 1½ lakhs
65. Vidarbhā (Vidarbha) 5 ,,
66. Vardhamāna 14 thousands
67. Siṃhala dvīpa 10 ,,
68. Pāṇḍu deśa (probably in the Punjab ; see No. 30 above) 36 ,,
69. Bhayānaka 1 lakh
70. Māgadha (Magadha) deśa 66 thousands
71. Pāṃgu or Pāṇḍu deśa (redundant ; see Nos. 30 and 68) 60 ,,
72. Vareṃdu (redundant ; see No. 23 above) 30 ,,
73. Mūlasthāna (i.e. Mūltān) 25 ,,
74. Yāvana (Yavana) 40 ,,
75. Pakṣabāhu or Yakṣabāhu 4 ,,

c19.27

It may be pointed out that the text of the above Puranic section is not free from errors.¹ Some of the names show considerable Prakrit influence² while many of them are doubtful. There is however epigraphic support in favour of some of the traditional numbers of grāmas quoted in the list. Thus the Śākambhara or Śākambharī country is actually known to have been otherwise called Sapādalakṣa or ‘one and a quarter lakhs’.³

c19.28

¹ Nos, 22, 71 and 72 are redundant. The list also omits many well-known tracts.

c19.29

² E.g., Nos. 20, 26, 27, 38

c19.30

³ Cf. No. 26 above and Bhandarkar’s List, Nos. 279, 356. For another Sapādalakṣa country in the Nizamabad-Karimnagar region of Andhra Pradesh, see Jour. Or. Res., Vol. XVIII, Part i, p. 40. There was similarly a Pāḍonatakṣa (i.e. ‘one lakh minus one quarter’) country about the Shivapuri District in the former Gwalior State (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXIII, p. 68).

c19.31

The traditional numbers of villages in particular countries are also referred to in some other works. Vinayacandra’s Kāvyaśikṣā, e.g., mentions Surāṣṭra 9 thousands, Lāṭa-deśa 21 thousands, Gurjaradeśa 70 thousands, Pārata 70 thousands, Ḍāhala 9 lakhs, Mālava 9 lakhs and 92, Kānyakubja 46 lakhs, etc.⁴

c19.32

⁴ Rājaśekhara’s Kāvyamīmāṃsā, G. O. S. ed., pp. 248-49. Cf. Nos. 6, 10, 25, 29, 37 and 38 of the Skanda Purāṇa list quoted above.

c19.33

It should be pointed out that sometimes numbers mentioned with the name of a tract do not refer to villages but groups of them, although a distinction is made in such cases. The Udaypur (former Gwalior State, now in Madhya Pradesh) inscription of 1173 A.D. speaks of a village in Bhṛṅgārikā-catuḥṣaṭi-pathaka which formed a part of Bhāilasvāmi-mahādvādaśaka-maṇḍala.¹ It appears that the *pathaka* or subdistrict called ‘Bhṛṅgārikā 64’ consisted of sixty-four villages while the *maṇḍala* or district called ‘Bhailasvāmin great-12’ consisted of twelve subdistricts. The speciality of the second case has been indicated in the record by the introduction of the word *mahān* (great) prefixed to the number.

Linked texts (15)

Kāvyamīmāṃsā — Rājaśekhara, Sanskrit
Donative record at the Udayeśvara temple, Udayapur, Madhya Pradesh, dated V.S. 1222 — Sanskrit
Epigraphia Indica
Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy
Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Pandu
Virāta
Multân
Lanka
Dahala
Gauḍa
Baroda plates of Karka-Suvarṇavarṣa, Śaka 734 — Sanskrit
Grant of Bhoja Prithivīmallavarman, Year 1 (Grant A) — Sanskrit
Plate of Govindachandra of [Vikrama-]Saṁvat 1178 (H) — Sanskrit
Memorial pillar inscription of the reign of Vallāladēva — Sanskrit