The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c19.124

c19.124

The administrative system of Chambâ also resembles that of the plains in many particulars. Feudatories were often given high office under the suzerain, a practice which, together with the custom of making grants of land and the tendency to hereditary transmission of office, sometimes made the line between feudatories and regular officers rather faint. In the inscriptions feudatories are generally mentioned before the officers. The occurrence of the term Râjaputra in the same connection suggests that the sons of rulers—suzerains or feudatories—were given high administrative posts. The term Kumârâmâtya, minister of the prince, points to the same practice and suggests that a prince-governor or officer had a special minister to assist him. The latter in some cases might have been the real administrator. There seems to be a chief minister called Râjâmâtya or Mahâmâtya as in No. 24. Amâtya was the general term for ministers. In Chambâ as in Kashmir, Râjasthâna relates to justice. The Râjasthânîya who figures in the inscriptions seems to be in charge of justice and is, so to say, a minister of justice. The Pramâtâr was charged with the administration of justice perhaps only in civil cases. Daṇḍika and Daṇḍavâsika also seem to be judicial officers. Kṣetrapa, wrongly written as Kṣatrapa, means a police-officer specially charged with the protection of fields, that is, of agriculture. Cauroddharaṇika, ‘one who is entrusted with the extermination of thieves,’ was another high police-officer. The Uparika is a fiscal officer as in the plains, probably charged with the collection of the main head of land revenue. The Śaulkika was in charge of customs; Gaulmika in charge of forests and forest produce. The Akṣapaṭalikas or Mahâkṣapaṭalikas kept the records. Kâyasthas wrote out the legal documents. Among household officers may be mentioned the Khaṇḍarakṣa, probably a vernacularised form of the Sanskrit Khaḍgarakṣa, ‘sword guard,’ obviously belonging to the body-guard; the Chatrachâyika, parasol-bearer, who held the royal umbrella; the Vetakali, a betel-bearer.