The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c15.139.4

c15.139.4

The Sunao Kala Plates of Saṅgamasimha of the year 540-41 A.D., from Bharukaccha, modern Baronch, in Gujarât, furnish an illustration. The Mahâsâmanta Mahârâja, though a feudatory, has a regular administrative system of the usual type. His Śâsana is addressed to Râjasthânîyas, Uparikas, Kumârâmâtyas, Viṣayapatis, Drângikas, Câṭas, Bhaṭas and others. Ârakṣikas and Kulaputrakas are also mentioned. The former are probably police-officers. Kulaputrakas are probably not regular officials but merely representatives of families who were consulted by village and town-officers. There is a chamberlain Mahâpratihâra, while the Samdhivigrahika acts as Dûtaka. The fiscal system is the same as that of the Guptas. One of the privileges conferred on the grantee is that his area will not be entered by Câṭas and Bhaṭas whose presence, obviously, was felt as a burden.¹ The foreign rulers who established themselves in India adapted themselves to the Hindu system. In the Eraṇ Stone Boar Inscription Torâmaṇa is called Mahârâjâdhirâja.² Elsewhere Torâmaṇa has the titles Śâhi and Jauval as well as Râjâdhirâja.³ Some of the coins of Mihirakula have the bull-emblem of Siva and the legend Jayatu Vṛiṣaḥ on the reverse.⁴