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State and Government in Ancient India c23.s1: Section I: The Dark Period, 200 B. C. to 300 A. D.

State and Government in Ancient India c23.s1

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Section I: The Dark Period, 200 B. C. to 300 A. D.

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We do not possess detailed information about the different kingdoms that flourished in India from *c.* 200 B. C. to 300 A. D., and so can give only a very imperfect picture of their administration. There were a number of Indian dynasties ruling at this time like the Ailas, the Śuṅgas, the Kaṇvas and the Sātavāhanas; there were also foreign houses like those of the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Scythians, the Indo-Parthians and the Kushāṇas. But the administrative structure of the latter did not differ in any vital and important points from that of the former. Foreign rulers came under the powerful influence of the Indian political thought; Rudradāman, the 3rd ruler of the Scythian house of Western India had assiduously studied the Indian science of polity (*arthavidyā*); he asserts that his officials were possessing the necessary qualifications of *amātyas* (*amātyaguṇas*) and is proud to point out that he had refrained from the imposition of benevolences *praṇaya*) and forced labour (*vishṭi*). It is clear that though a foreigner, Rudradāman had completely assimilated Indian political theories and was anxious that his administrative structure should conform to the traditional Indian type.

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The institutions of the foreigners had, however, some influence upon the Indian administrative usage. Chandragupta and Aśoka were content to call themselves mere Rājās; the Mauryan queens like Chāruvākī were known as mere Rāṇīs; Kanishka on the other hand styled himself as Mahārāja- *rājātirāja-devaputra*.¹ Queens began to be called *agramahishīs* and *mahādevīs*. Hindu kings and queens did not adopt these titles during this period. The title *devaputra* shows how the theory of the divinity of the king was making a rapid progress under the Kushāṇa auspices ; the emperors of this dynasty started building temples at Mathurā in honour of their dead predecessors, following the Roman practice on the bank of the Tiber. Manu, who flourished during this period, describes the king as a great deity *mahatī devatā*).

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¹ Kanishka of the Ara inscription had taken the title *kaisora*, it did not become popular in India.

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An interesting practice popularised by the Scythian rulers was the system of *dvairājya*. This practice was not unknown to the Hindu polity (see *ante* p. 38) but was rather rare. Under the Śakas and the Parthians, the king and the heir-apparent both ruled with almost equal powers. As instances of this *dvairājya* we may refer to the joint rule of Spalyrises and Azes, Hagāna and Hagāmasha, Gondopharnes and Gad and Kanishka II and Huvishka. Under the Western Kshatrapas, the father usually ruled as Mahākshatrapa simultaneously with his heir-apparent as Kshatrapa, both issuing coins in their own names. In the *dvairājya* administration, the junior member seems to have exercised greater powers than those conceded to Yuvarāja by the Hindu polity. Some queens like Nayanikā of the Sātavāhana dynasty used to act as regents during the minority of their sons.

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The powers of the king were on the increase ; there was no revival of a popular assembly like the *samiti* of the Vedic period. In the centre, the power was vested in the king and the ministry, the latter being responsible only to the former. Ministers were known as *matisachivas* and *karmasachivas* under Rudradāman I. Among the specific ministers only the treasurer known as *Koshṭhtāgārika* or *Bhāṇḍāgārika*, figures in our records.¹ Others of course must have existed, though they do not figure in our records. The secretariat continued to function as in the earlier period and used to serve as the link between the Central Government on the one hand and Provincial and District administrations on the other. It received the reports from the latter, and after considering them, used to communicate to them the decisions of the former.

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¹ *E.I.* XX.28 ; *Lüder's List*, No. 1141

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¹ *Lüder's List* No. 1144

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The general machinery of the provincial, district and town administrations remained the same. The foreign rulers changed the designations or titles of some offices; thus the provincial governor was called Kshatrapa or Mahākshtrapa under the Śakas and the Kushānas, the district officer probably as *meridarh* and the military commandant as *strategos* under the Greeks. These designations however did not become popular in India, for the foreign rulers themselves were being rapidly Indianised. Rudradāman, the 3rd ruler of the Śaka house in Western India, took pride in his ability to write elegant and chaste Sanskrit.

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There was not much departure from the earlier tradition in the general administrative structure. Senior officials continued to be known as Mahāmātras and Rajjukas; the Sātavāhanas had a Śramaṇa-mahāmātra at Nasik and the Rajjukas were working in Central India under the Śuṅgas and in Karnātak under the Chūtu Sātakarṇis.² The cadre of the Amātyas, corresponding to the present I. A. S., continued to supply high officers in the different departments of the administration. Ayama, the minister of Mahākshatrapa Nahapāṇa, was an Amātya, as also Kuplaipa, the viceroy of Gujarat under Rudradāman. Under the Sātavāhanas private secretaries to kings and treasures were also Amātyas.⁵ The officers in charge of Govardhana and Māmala districts belonged to the same cadre.⁶ The royal donor of the gift of a tank and monastery at Banavāsi had entrusted the work of the execution of her project to Amātya Khadasati, who probably belonged to the engineering department, as he is expressly described as the superintendent of works (*kammāntika*).⁷ The Amātyas were as ubiquiotous in the administration at this period as they were in the Mauryan age.

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² *Ibid*, Nos. 416, 1195

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³ *Ibid*, No. 1174

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⁴ *Ibid*, No. 965

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⁵ *Ibid*, No. 1141

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⁶ *Ibid*, Nos. 1105, 1125

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⁷ *Ibid*, No. 1186

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To return to territorial divisions, Rāshṭra or Deśa denoted the province and Āhāra or Vishaya the district. But sometimes these terms were used indiscriminately; thus *Sātavāhanī rāshṭra* was also called *Sātavāhanī-āhāra*. The chief officer over Rāshṭra was called Rāshṭrapati or Rāshṭrika; he belonged to the cadre of the Amātyas. Sometimes, however, he used to belong to the military cadre, as was the case with Mahādaṇḍanāyaka Sridhara, the governor of Mālwā under the Western Kshatrapas. The special designation of the district officers does not occur; they are referred to merely as Amātyas to whose cadre they belonged. Sometimes however they were military officers, as was the case with Sātavāhanī-Āhāra at the end of the Sātavāhana rule.¹ It may however be noted that the members of the Amātya cadre also supplied military and naval officers under the Mauryas. Probably a certain amount of military training was compulsory for all the members of the Amātya service.

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¹ Mykadoni Inscription, *E. I.*, XIV, 155

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Grāma or village continued to be the smallest administrative unit; its headman was known as Grāmani, Grāmika, or Grāmeyaka or Grāmabhojaka. He was assisted in the administration by a council of elders, Grāma-mahattaras, as in the earlier period.

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*Bhāga* (land tax), *śulka* (customs) and *bali* (extra impositions) are the main taxes referred to in the Junagad inscription of Rudradāman. They were paid in cash or kind. Benevolences (*praṇaya*) and forced labour (*vishṭi*) were resorted to by less scrupulous rulers. The army, the general administration and the royal household must have required the lion's share of the state revenues. There is however evidence to show that a considerable part of the state's income was spent on charity to temples and monasteries, help to learned men and the construction of the works of public utility. The extensive charities of Ushavadāta, the son-in-law of King Nahapāna, are a pointer in this direction.

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Republics reasserted themselves during this period on the downfall of the Mauryan dynasty. The evidence of the coinage show that the Kuṇindas, the Yaudheyas, the Arjunāyanas and the Mālavas became independent by *c.* 150 B. C. The central executive of the republic was however tending to become hereditary, especially during the times of stress and strain. The Nāndasā Yūpa inscription shows how the family of Śri-Soma, who succeeded in recovering the independence of Mālwā by overthrowing the power of the Western Kshatrapas, was at the helm of affairs at least for three generations.¹ In some cases the head of the republic used to have the title of the Mahārāja, as in the case of the Sanakānīkas in Central India. In other republics, as in the case of the Mālavas, though the headship had become hereditary, the royal title was not permitted. No republican president was however allowed to issue coins in his own name; the coin legends like *Malavānāṁ jayaḥ*, *Yaudheya-gaṇasya jayaḥ* show that the coinage was in the name of the republic and not in that of its head.

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¹ समुद्धृत्य पितृपैतामहीं धुरम् । Nandsa inscription, *E. I.* XXVII. p. 252.

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The above picture of the administrative machinery of the period, 200 B. C. to 300 A. D. is undoubtedly very incomplete, but it is so because it takes account of only those facts that are accidentally revealed by the short and often fragmentary inscriptions of the period. Unfortunately no ruler of the period issued administrative edicts like Aśoka; no writer of the age wrote a book like the *Arthaśāstra*; nor was the country visited by an inquisitive foreigner like Megasthenes, whose writings have been handed down to us. We may however well presume that under the bigger kingdoms of the period like those of the Śuṅgas, the Sātavāhanas and the Kushāṇas, the state discharged most of the ministrant functions referred to in the *Arthaśāstra* and had an administrative machinery almost as extensive and varied as that of the Mauryas.

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