The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c19.15

c19.15

Feudal conditions were present in Kashmir as elsewhere. King Meghavâhana in the earlier ages was believed to have conquered many ‘kings’ in the course of a Digvijaya and made them promise to abstain from slaughter of animals (III, 27, 29). Lalitâditya was believed to have carried his arms far and wide (IV, 144 et seq.) and imposed his suzerainty on many princes. In an apparently incidental passage Kalhaṇa remarks that the terrified Râjas and Râjaputras confined themselves to their homes, “as if in embarrassment” (IV, 447). The number of Râjas, indeed, seems to have been legion. External marks of subjection were sometimes attached to a whole tribe. It was believed that according to the command of Lalitâditya the Puruṣkas carried their arms at their back and shaved half their head. The particular record may be mythical but the fact of such occasional restrictions is probable. In the latter years of the ninth century A.D. Śaṅkaravarman carried out another Digvijaya (V, 139). As he advanced, his army was swelled from place to place by the lines of feudatory chiefs (V, 140). A council summoned by Sugandhâ (904—906 A.D.) to settle the succession included many feudatories (V, 250). Feudal chiefs often played a notable part in the politics of the kingdom as a whole (V, 451-52). They were always expected to help the suzerain in times of war (VII, 48).