State and Government in Ancient India c16.137

c16.137

The officers of this department were known as *dharmamahāmātras* under the Mauryas, *śramaṇamahāmātras* under the Sātavāhanas, *vinayasthitisthāpakas* under the Guptas and *dharmāṅkuśas* under he Rāshtrakūṭas. Their duty was to encourage all religions impartially; no distinction was usually made between the followers of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism when distributing state patronage. The officer directly in the charge of state grants for religious purposes is called *dānapati* by Śukra (II. 119). Learned Brāhmaṇas, Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples and *maṭhas*, which usually received these grants, used to organise schools, colleges, hospitals and poor houses. The donations given by the state to them may to a certain extent well be regarded as grants in aid of hospitals, education and poor relief as well. The villages assigned to temples, monasteries and learned Brāhmaṇas became fairly numerous from *c.* 400 A. D.; a special officer came to be appointed to look after their administration. He is called *agrahārika* in the Gupta and Pāla records.¹ It was his duty to see that there were no difficulties created in the enjoyment of grants given to the donees. If intervening anarchy had interfered with their enjoyment,² the possession was to be restored. Very often conditions were imposed when grants were given; in some cases they were tenable only as long as the recipients or their descendants continued to be learned and pious scholars. The *agrahārika's* duty was to see that these conditions were duly fulfilled. Sometimes counterfeit grants were produced by fraudulent Brāhmaṇas;¹ it was the duty of this officer to detect and punish the fraud. In south India, the Chola administration used to send special auditors to see that temple funds and properties were duly utilised.