The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c18.146

c18.146

The inscriptions reveal a few peculiarities in titles. Thus, the Hatti-Mattûr Inscription of the Râṣṭrakûṭa King Kṛiṣṇa I, of Malkhed of the year 765 A.D., substitutes Bhaṭâra for Bhaṭṭâraka.³ Further south in Mysore a Doḍḍahuṇḍi Inscription of Nitimârga and Satyakâma, of the 9th century A.D., mentions a line of Dharmamahârâjas, presumably a dynasty of feudatories who prided themselves on their attachment to religion.⁴ Two Kadamba grants show that a line of Dharma-Mahâmâtras assumed the title Mahârâjâdhirâja.⁵ In the Nilgund Inscription of the line of Amoghavarṣa I, of the year 866 A.D., from the Dhârwâḍ district in the Western Presidency, the three grand titles are joined to Pañcamahâśabdas. This juxtaposition of the titles of suzerainty and vassalage is either a mistake or a strictly local peculiarity.⁶ In almost all other inscriptions the distinctive significance of the titles is observed. In fact in the ninth century in Gujarât it was possible for a sub-feudatory to acquire the five Mahâśabdas. In the Torkhede Grant of the year 812 A.D., of the time of Govindarâja, a feudatory of a feudatory is called Mahâsâmanta and is said to have obtained the Pañcamahâśabda.¹ The phenomenon is extremely rare. It was perhaps confined to cases in which the difference between a feudatory and a sub-vassal was faint.