[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928) › c19 # The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c19: Chapter XV. Kashmir and Chambâ The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c19 - **Language:** English ### Chapter XV. Kashmir and Chambâ ### [c19.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.2) The administrative system of the northern plains obtained with some modifications in mountainous regions like Kashmir and Chambâ. Thanks to Kalhaṇa one can trace the practical working of institutions from age to age in greater detail for Kashmir than for any other region in the north. The Râjatarangiṇî, as the composition of Kalhaṇa is called, is easily the most important of the few historical works in Sanskrit. The author lived in the twelfth century A.D. and writes romance rather than history for the early ages from which his narrative begins. But as he approaches his own times he gains in accuracy, definiteness and fulness. He based his history partly on Nilamatas, blue records, an expression which reminds one of Blue Books. It appears that such records of political and other happenings were regularly kept in Kashmir. Kalhaṇa’s long narrative brings to light some novel features of political life.¹ ### [c19.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.3) ¹ For Kalhaṇa’s life, M. A. Stein, Introduction to the translation of the Râjatarangiṇî, Vol. I, Ch. I, pp. 6–12; for the scope and character of his work, Ibid., Ch. II, pp. 22–41. ### [c19.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.4) As the Râjatarangiṇî and later accounts prove, caste in Kashmir assumed a form different from those which prevailed elsewhere in North India. The fourfold division was certainly known but it lacked rigidity. There was a sharp division between Brâhmaṇas and Śûdras and a still sharper one between Brâhmaṇas and untouchables. The number of Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas was small. There are, indeed, some clans of Râjaputras, redoubtable warriors,¹ but there is a passage which shows that these were not native to Kashmir.² The number of Brâhmaṇas was so large that the priests practically separated themselves from the ordinary Brâhmaṇas. They organised themselves into corporations in numerous places, became a power in the land and threatened or carried out hunger-strikes.³ Many Brâhmaṇas took service under the government and, as petty officials and clerks, were included in the generic term Kâyastha.⁴ There is a record that all Brâhmaṇas were once exempted from capital punishment⁵ but the subsequent narrative does not show that the privilege was universally respected. In marriage the restrictions of caste were disregarded more frequently than in the plains of the north. For instance, in the early years of the eleventh century A.D., King Saṃgrâmarâja married his daughter to a Brâhmaṇa state officer.⁶ The mother of King Jayâpīḍa was the daughter of a petty liquor-trader.⁷ In the tenth century king Cakravarman made a ḍom, a woman of the very lowest class, his chief queen.⁸ High office was within the reach of men of low birth. In the ninth century A.D., one of the chief officers, an engineer of Avantivarman, was a foundling.⁹ The son of a Vaiśya who was a watchman in a temple, rose to be the chief minister of another king.¹⁰ ### [c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.5) ¹ Kalhaṇa, Râjatarangiṇī, VII, 360, 368, 1617; VIII, 323. ### [c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.6) ² Ibid., VIII, 1328. ### [c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.7) ³ Ibid., VIII, 710, 905, infra. ### [c19.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.8) ⁴ Ibid., VII, 38; VIII, 2383. The term Kâyastha is first mentioned in IV, 621. Later, it occurs frequently, i.e., VIII, 85-87, 131, 560, etc., etc. It does not yet mean a distinct caste or a group of sub-castes as at present. ### [c19.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.9) ⁵ Ibid., IV, 96. ### [c19.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.10) ⁶ Ibid., VII, 11. ### [c19.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.11) ⁷ Ibid., IV, 678. ### [c19.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.12) ⁸ Ibid., V, 389. ### [c19.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.13) ⁹ Ibid., V, 73. ### [c19.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.14) ¹⁰ Ibid., VII, 207. ### [c19.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.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). ### [c19.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.16) The narration of Kalhaṇa reveals the working of the despotism in all its beneficence, its terror and its caprices. There were many pious, noble and generous kings. The court of the half legendary Saṃdhimat is said to have resembled the assembly of Śiva and to have been adorned by ascetics.¹ The shrines built by Lalitâditya, one of the heroes of Kashmīr history, were supposed to be numberless.¹ In the tenth century A.D. a single king granted 55 Agra-hāras, furnished with various implements, to Brāhmaṇas.² Many other kings founded Buddhist vihāras or Brahmanic temples, made grants of land for their maintenance and also showered generous gifts on Brāhmaṇas.³ Their example was followed by their relations and ministers. For instance, Amṛtaprabhā, one of the queens of the Buddhist king Meghavāhana, built a lofty vihāra for the benefit of foreign bhikṣus.⁴ Other queens followed suit.⁵ Kalhaṇa preserves the tradition that Tuñjīna I who ruled in ancient days afforded generous, unstinted relief to his subjects in days of famine.⁶ In historic times, too, there were rulers who supplied grain to people at cheap rates.⁷ The state does not seem to have founded many hospitals in Kashmīr at any epoch but they were not altogether unknown.⁸ ### [c19.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.17) ¹ Ibid, II, 127. ### [c19.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.18) ¹ Ibid., IV, 181, 484. ### [c19.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.19) ² Ibid., VI, 89. ### [c19.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.20) ³ Ibid., I, 99, 121, 145–48 ; II, 132 ; III, 8 ; IV, 673 ; V, 124, 158 ; VII, 1096, 1098 ; VIII, 243–46, 2391, 3316-17, 3343-44. ### [c19.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.21) ⁴ Ibid., III, 9. ### [c19.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.22) ⁵ Ibid., III, 11–14 ; for a similar later instance, VIII, 2433. For the pious foundations of ministers, VIII, 2419. ### [c19.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.23) ⁶ Ibid., II, 27–33. ### [c19.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.24) ⁷ Ibid., VIII, 61. ### [c19.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.25) ⁸ Ibid., III, 461. ### [c19.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.26) On the other hand, there were many rulers who almost revelled in tyranny or who trampled religion under their feet when they required money. In the eleventh century A.D. King Harṣa plundered most of the temples and took away their accumulated treasures.⁹ The requests of his court-favourites succeeded with difficulty in preserving two colossal statues of the Buddha from molestation.¹⁰ An earlier King Śaṅkaravarman (883—902 A.D.) straightway plundered sixty-four temples and resumed the endowments of many others.¹ Starting on a campaign, Lalitāditya appropriated ten millions from the shrine of Bhūteśa, though on returning victorious, he more than made up for it and presented eleven times as much to the shrine.² All through the Rājatarangiṇī there are many kings who confiscate previous grants, or divert them from their original object or who plunder the temples.³ Kings sometimes adopted other lines of conduct which bore even more heavily on the poor. They would sometimes take possession of a whole harvest in a given area leaving hardly anything to the cultivators.⁴ In 1099-1100 A.D. when a terrible famine and inundation devastated the land, King Harṣa, far from thinking of any relief to the miserable, imposed heavy fines on the people, tormented them through his petty officers, and commanded the governors to kill or disperse certain over-powerful tribes.⁵ There were some kings who wasted the resources of the state on their own festivities and drinking.⁶ Others indulged in forms of debauchery too horrible to recapitulate.⁷ Yet others practised diabolical cruelties which make the flesh creep.⁸ ### [c19.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.27) ⁹ Ibid., VII, 1090. ### [c19.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.28) ¹⁰ Ibid., VII, 1081, 1098. ### [c19.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.29) ¹ Ibid., V, 16—69. ### [c19.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.30) ² Ibid., IV, 189. ### [c19.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.31) ³ Ibid., II, 132; IV, 395; V, 52, 170; VI, 175; VII, 48, 106, 570, 696, 1344; VIII, 2756. ### [c19.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.32) ⁴ Ibid., IV, 347, 628, 639; VII, 1107. ### [c19.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.33) ⁵ Ibid., VII, 1219—27. ### [c19.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.34) ⁶ Ibid., V, 206; VI, 10, 150; VII, 285; VIII, 868, 1866. ### [c19.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.35) ⁷ Ibid., IV, 659; V, 440-41; VI, 151—71; VII, 1109—14. ### [c19.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.36) ⁸ Ibid., VIII, 676—80. ### [c19.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.37) In the Rājatarangiṇī the people of Kashmir show extraordinary capacity to bear oppression but even their patience was occasionally exhausted. They protested by means of hunger-strikes which often achieved their immediate object. Thus, ### [c19.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.38) Protest by hunger-strikes. ### [c19.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.39) when the system of forced carriage of loads introduced by Śaṅkaravarman (V, 174) led to great oppression, the Brâhmaṇas started a fast to be exempted from it (VII, 1088, also VIII, 2513). Hunger-strike, in fact, became a common resort of people who felt themselves aggrieved. We find the doorkeeper of King Yaśaskara in the tenth century, reporting once at the close of business to his master, ‘A Brâhmaṇa stands outside to commit suicide unless he can see (you), though I have told him that your Majesty has done with business for to-day, and that there is time to-morrow for his communication’ (VI, 43). The king felt obliged to postpone his dinner and redress the Brâhmaṇa’s wrong (VI, 44—60). Once in the 11th century, the Brâhmaṇa counsellors of a king led the Purohitas and other Brâhmaṇas to go on a hunger-strike at Parihâsapura to bring about the fall of an obnoxious royal favourite (VII, 13). For the time being, the king yielded (VII, 15). When a bitter civil war between a king and his son in the 11th century threatened to plunge the country into ruin, Brâhmaṇas organised a solemn fast which forced the combatants to make peace for a while (VII, 400-401). It will appear that such a hunger-strike roused popular sympathy and had a tendency to inflame the public feeling. ### [c19.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.40) Sometimes there arose popular leaders who acquired the reputation of experts in the art of arranging fasts. They were generally the leaders of the priestly corporations. They are reckoned among those who delight in the king’s misfortunes (VIII, 710). ### [c19.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.41) In the early years of the 12th century when royal servants plundered the Agrahâra of Akṣosura, the local Brâhmaṇas went on a solemn fast (VIII, 898). Soon other fasts broke out in the city (VIII, 899-900) and yet others followed on an alarming, unprecedented scale (VIII, 901-2). The king tried to pacify them in vain (VIII, 903). Large numbers of citizens came every day to watch the hunger-strikers and discussed numberless plans with them but to no purpose (VIII, 905). The atmosphere was soon charged with electricity and the outbreak of a storm was not long delayed (VIII, 907). In the face of the crisis the first care of the king was to go to the hunger-strikers and try once again to conciliate them. But his endeavours failed once more (VIII, 903). The war went on. It was only when the Brāhmaṇas were frightened at certain exigencies in the struggle that they gave up the fast (VIII, 939-40). So familiar was the weapon of hunger-strike that even rulers sometimes resorted or threatened to resort to it to achieve their ends. At the commencement of the twelfth century King Uccala vowed that if any accused person or any litigant starved himself to death by way of protest against miscarriage of justice, he would himself commit suicide. So, we are told, the judges became very careful.¹ There were other forms of similar protest. Once a thief having died from an over-severe beating, the kind-hearted minister resigned and went off on a pilgrimage.² ### [c19.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.42) ¹ Ibid., VIII, 51. ### [c19.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.43) ² Ibid., VII, 602. ### [c19.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.44) In the political life of Kashmīr matters sometimes took a more serious turn. There were attempts at the assassination of tyrannical rulers or their agents. Insurrections broke out. There were many who would fish in troubled waters and make the situation worse confounded. The pages of the Rāja-taraṅgiṇī are full of such incidents. For instance, Yudhiṣṭhira I was expelled from the kingdom and he and his wives had to undergo terrible hardships.³ A new dynasty from abroad now filled the throne. On a subsequent vacancy of the throne, Sandhimati who had resisted the tyranny of the late king, was persuaded by the people to assume the sceptre.¹ On the extinction of the Gonanda dynasty a Kârkoṭa prince was consecrated “with sacred water poured out from golden jars.”² ### [c19.45](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.45) ³ Ibid., I, 173. ### [c19.46](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.46) ¹ Ibid., II, 116. ### [c19.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.47) ² Ibid., II, 528. ### [c19.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.48) Often in the course of his narrative Kalhaṇa pauses to moralise on the events in the usual style.³ There is one set of precepts which came down to posterity as the political testament of Lalitâditya and which deserves notice. Its tone is so realistic that it must be held to reflect certain practical tendencies in the administration. “Those who wish to be powerful in this land, must always guard against internal dissension . . .”(IV, 345). “Those who dwell there in the (mountains) difficult of access, should be punished, even if they give no offence, because sheltered by their fastness, they are difficult to break up if they have (once) accumulated wealth” (346). “Every care should be taken that there should not be left with the villagers more food supply than required for one year’s consumption, nor more oxen than wanted for (the tillage of) their fields” (347). If they kept more wealth, they would neglect the commands of the king (348, also, 349—52). ### [c19.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.49) ³ Ibid., I, 118—20; IV, 342, 344—48, 352, 701; V, 183—91, 210 et seq.; VIII, 1—61, 195, 993. ### [c19.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.50) The scope of the activity of the state in Kashmir is the same as elsewhere in India. Irrigation, for instance, was cared for by the state. In the 8th century A.D., Lalitâditya distributed the water of the Vitastâ by constructing a series of water-wheels (IV, 212). Besides the cases of the foundation temples and vihâras, etc., already referred to, it may be mentioned that, according to the traditional history, the ancient king Meghavâhana began his reign by commanding his officials to proclaim everywhere by beat of drum that no living beings were to be slaughtered anywhere on any account (III, 5). With the same object in view he undertook a Digvijaya (III, 27) and made the conquered \` kings ' take a vow of abstinence from slaughter (III, 29). Butchers and others who had hitherto lived on the sale of meat were encouraged by grants from the royal treasury to adopt a sinless livelihood (III, 6). In strictly historical times, in the latter half of the ninth century A.D., Avantivarman issued a command—which was to be observed till the end of the world—prohibiting the killing of fishes and birds on a vast take (V, 119). It appears that the king exercised some supervision over the temples (V, 169). King Harṣa (1189—1201 A.D.) introduced new fashions in dress. Jayāpīḍa revived Sanskrit learning by attracting famous scholars and poets to his court towards the close of the 8th century A.D. ### [c19.51](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.51) The general tenor of the king's personal share in the administration is clear from the foregoing narrative. A few further details may be added. A king was sometimes on terms of friendship and familiarity with powerful or wealthy subjects (IV, 13-14). Righteous kings were accessible to all, even to the poorest, and ever ready to redress their wrongs (VI, 44—60). There were kings who discharged the functions of ministers (VI, 117). At times of festivity, music or dance, the court presented a brilliant appearance. Singers and artists from abroad were readily welcomed (V, 355-6). The magnificence of the Kashmir court reached its zenith under King Harṣa (1089—1101 A.D.). The chronicler goes into lyrics over it. “Nobody in his court was seen without brilliant dress, without gold ornaments, with a small following, or without a resolute bearing.” People from various countries presented themselves. The riches of all countries seemed to be piled up at the Kashmir court. The palace witnessed the movement of numberless counsellors, chamberlains and attendants adorned with golden chains and bracelets. On journeys, a minister would always be mistaken for the king. At night the assembly-hall, illuminated by a thousand lamps, was the scene of scholastic discussions, musical performances and dances (VII, 881—83, 895, 944). And so on (VII, 946—949). Over and above it all, the king practised magnificent charity (VII, 955). But all this expenditure ultimately led to oppressive exactions from tax-payers (VII, 1100-1101). ### [c19.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.52) A king had usually a big harem which was sometimes increased by questionable means. For instance, a king falls in love with a girl, much younger than himself, daughter of a merchant who was on friendly terms with him.¹ On the other hand, ministers sometimes intrigued with the ladies of the royal seraglio.² The king's household expenditure was generally heavy. In the ninth century A.D. the household was placed in charge of a superintendent designated Grihakritya.³ ### [c19.53](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.53) ¹ Ibid., IV, 23—30. ### [c19.54](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.54) ² Ibid., III, 497—500; V, 282, 281—8 ### [c19.55](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.55) ³ Ibid., V, 167, 176. ### [c19.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.56) Harem influences sometimes seriously affected the administration. A singer's daughters, Hamsi and Nāgalatā were taken by the infatuated King Cakravarman into his harem in the thirties of the tenth century A.D. Hamsi was at once designated chief queen.⁴ Her relations tended to monopolise all power and office with the result that the kingdom fell into troubles.⁴ Female intrigue, again, was one of the forces which complicated the problem of the succession on failure of direct heirs. Women were, as a rule, barred from the throne. There is indeed the case of ### [c19.57](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.57) ⁴ Ibid., V, 354, 361—90, 404—12. ### [c19.58](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.58) queen Didda who actually reigned for a long while in the latter half of the tenth century A.D.¹ She is one of the extremely few queens who regularly occupied a throne in ancient India. But even in Kashmîr ambitious women had generally to content themselves with power behind the scenes. Once a royal lady, Sugandhâ, wielded actual power for two years (904--906 A.D.). Anxious to perpetuate her influence, she planned the elevation of one of her own creatures to the throne. To achieve her purpose she summoned an assembly of feudal chiefs, ministers, Tantrins and Ekângas. But dissensions arose and two civil wars followed in the course of which Sugandhâ herself was put to death.² ### [c19.59](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.59) ¹ Ibid., VI. ### [c19.60](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.60) ² Ibid., V, 249--62, 288--340. ### [c19.61](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.61) Sometimes a mere false move on the part of a king might lead to trouble of the most serious description. In 1063 A.D. King Ananta, urged by his wife, but against the advice of his ministers, abdicated in favour of his son Kalaśa. But when the latter proved his incapacity by his disgraceful rule, the old "king" and "queen" thought of replacing him by their grandson Harṣa. The altercations which followed led to two bitter civil wars at the end of which Ananta committed suicide.³ ### [c19.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.62) ³ Ibid., VII, 230--456. ### [c19.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.63) In the troubles over the succession, Brâhmaṇas sometimes played a leading part. On the deposition of the child-king Śûravarman in 939 A.D. the Brâhmaṇas gathered from all sacred places, debated the succession for five or six days but the man whom they set up at last kept them at arm's length lest they should become too powerful.⁴ In his political testament Lalitâditya Muktâpīḍa laid down that "the elder should be placed on the throne . . . ### [c19.64](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.64) ⁴ Ibid., V, 461--66; VI, 2--4. ### [c19.65](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.65) Do not make the younger king. If, however, through a fault of judgment, this should happen, then his commands should be obeyed and he (himself) protected, though he may be of bad character.”¹ ### [c19.66](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.66) ¹ Ibid., IV, 356-58. ### [c19.67](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.67) According to Kalhaṇa, there were only seven high officials of state until the time of Jalauka, \*viz.\*, the judge, the revenue superintendent, the treasurer, the commander of the army, the envoy, the Purohita and the astrologer. Jalauka established 18 offices or \*Karmasthânas\*,² but the king is represented as the son of Aśoka and is not quite an historical figure. All that we can say is that the number of state departments in Kashmîr was at first much smaller than eighteen. Much later Lalitâditya instituted another five offices—Mahâpratî-piḍa or high chamberlain, Mahâsandhivigraha, minister for peace and war, Mahâśvaśâla, chief master of the horse, Mahâbhâṇḍâgâra, high keeper of the treasury, Mahâsâdhana-bhâga, chief executive officer, rather vague.³ It will appear that the administration developed gradually and the number of ministers rose accordingly. ### [c19.68](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.68) ² Ibid., I, 118-20. ### [c19.69](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.69) ³ Ibid., IV, 137, 140, 142-43. ### [c19.70](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.70) The context of the Râjatarangiṇî indicates that it was the titles of these five offices which were denoted by the term Pañcamahâśabda. In the inscriptions of the plains of India, however, the expression will not bear that meaning. There it seems in practically every case to refer to feudatories who had the privilege of using certain fine musical instruments, or beating some instruments five times a day. The most likely solution of the difficulty which has exercised several scholars, seems to be that the term had different significations in different localities.⁴ In Kashmîr ministers were called Râjânakas.¹ Above the rest was a chief minister called Sarvâdhikâra.² Two or even more of the higher offices were sometimes combined in the hands of a single person (IV, 140). Sometimes princes of the blood were appointed to the highest posts.³ Other relatives of the king also sometimes occupied high offices and exercised influence. Sometimes they made merry if a king died heirless.⁴ The actual power and prestige of a minister would depend on the personal equation but the general importance of their position is clear from a few well-attested incidents. On the death of Avantivarman in 883 A.D., a number of members of the royal family aspired to the throne and quarrelled among themselves. The Chamberlain placed Śaṅkaravarman, a son of the late king, on the throne. Another minister installed a different member of the royal family as Yuvarâja. A civil war was the result.⁵ Ministers could sometimes conspire and imperil the safety of the king.⁶ The commanders of the standing army or bodyguard of infantry were particularly dangerous.⁷ One of the most important military commands seems to have been that of the Dvârapati or warden of the marches. ### [c19.71](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.71) ⁴ Ind. Ant., IV, 106, 180, 204; XII, 95; XIII, 134; XIV, 202. ### [c19.72](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.72) ¹ Kalhaṇa, VI, 117. ### [c19.73](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.73) ² Ibid., VII, 364. ### [c19.74](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.74) ³ Ibid., IV, 142-43. ### [c19.75](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.75) ⁴ Ibid., IV, 680; V, 127-30. ### [c19.76](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.76) ⁵ Ibid., V, 127-30. ### [c19.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.77) ⁶ Ibid., VIII, 294 et seq. ### [c19.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.78) ⁷ Ibid., V, 248. ### [c19.79](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.79) One of the important offices was that of the Koṣâdhyakṣa who superintended the treasury.⁸ The department of the Grihakṛitya not only looked after palace finance but was also responsible for the management of gifts and endowments to gods, Brâhmaṇas, royal servants, paupers, strangers, cows, etc.⁹ A new fiscal office or Karmasthâna was established by King Kalaśa in the 11th century.¹ A little later King Harṣa created some fresh revenue offices to manage his new imposts.² It appears that every head of revenue was managed by a separate official and his department. The organisation of new offices indicates that the administrative system developed according to needs. Justice seems to be the charge of the Râjasthâna.³ In the plains the term Râjasthânîya meant viceroy but in Kashmîr the cognate Râjasthâna stood for the chief justice or the chief court of justice. The chief administrative and household offices were often filled by aristocrats.⁴ But according to the evidence of the Râjatarangiṇî as a whole the tendency to the hereditary transmission of offices was less strong in Kashmîr than elsewhere in north India. ### [c19.80](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.80) ⁸ Ibid., V, 232. ### [c19.81](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.81) ⁹ Ibid., VII, 42-43. ### [c19.82](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.82) ¹ Ibid., VII, 570. ² Ibid., VII, 1105-6. ³ Ibid., VIII, 573. ⁴ Ibid., VIII, 713. ⁵ Ibid., VI, 30, 38. ⁶ Ibid., V, 177. ⁷ Ibid., V, 181. ### [c19.83](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.83) Among the minor functionaries of state may be mentioned Adhikaraṇalekhakas or official recorders. Their duties were important enough to tempt others to offer bribes to them.⁵ There was a large secretariat of which the members called Diviras discharged specified functions in separate departments. The number of Diviras was increased or decreased by individual kings.⁶ Below the Diviras seem to have stood the Lekhakas, or clerks. The minor functionaries of state, as a whole, were called Kâyasthas.⁷ They do not yet form a caste; they are only a class by themselves. But later the class developed into a series of sub-castes which filled the minor ranks of government service under the Muslim rulers of medieval India. ### [c19.84](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.84) Local government in Kashmir followed the type of the northern plains, not that of the Deccan or the South. The representatives of the state in the village were known as Grâmakâyasthas.¹ ### [c19.85](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.85) ¹ Ibid., V, 175. ### [c19.86](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.86) Local Government. ### [c19.87](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.87) A city was under a prefect who, \*inter alia\*, was responsible for the maintenance of order.² Prefects were sometimes very corrupt and, what was worse, kings sometimes, though of course rarely, condescended to share their ill-gotten wealth.³ On the other hand, there are cases of prefects carefully looking after their charges and reforming the administration and improving the condition of the people. ### [c19.88](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.88) ² Ibid., VIII, 814. ### [c19.89](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.89) ³ Ibid., VI, 70. ### [c19.90](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.90) There were only too many officials of all ranks who were corrupt and oppressive. King Uccala (1101—1111 A.D.) always thought that "officials in truth are eager to kill, desirous of evil, robbers of others' property, rogues and demons; he (the king) should protect the people against them."⁴ The historian pauses to comment on the king's opinion in yet stronger terms, comparing the petty officials to cholera, colic, exhaustion, crabs, poison, trees, etc.⁵ King Uccala punished them relentlessly.⁶ He degraded them, dismissed them from office, imprisoned them, inflicted fancy punishments on them and reduced many of them to utter poverty, ridicule and humiliation.⁷ The king felt it necessary to endeavour all day long to know what the people thought and how they fared.⁸ He went about incognito among the people.⁹ Such strict supervision on the part of a king must have gone a long way to secure good government. ### [c19.91](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.91) ⁴ Ibid., VIII, 85—87. ### [c19.92](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.92) ⁵ Ibid., VIII, 88—91, 131; also, V, 18. ### [c19.93](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.93) ⁶ Ibid., VIII, 53. ### [c19.94](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.94) ⁷ Ibid., VIII, 92—106. ### [c19.95](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.95) ⁸ Ibid., VIII, 46. ### [c19.96](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.96) ⁹ Ibid., VIII, 55; also 74. ### [c19.97](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.97) The income of the state was derived from crown-lands,¹ the usual land-revenue which seems to have been paid often in kind,² and customs. Towards the close of the ninth century A.D., the collection of tolls on merchandise was entrusted to a distinct office, Aṭṭapatibhâga (the share of the lord of the market).³ Tolls were levied on the bridges and on frontier posts, particularly at fortified stations.⁴ Goods which had paid customs were stamped with a seal bearing the king's name in red lead.⁵ As already observed, the number of state-dues was sometimes increased by kings. Forced labour amounted to a tax. In the ninth century Śaṅkaravarman compelled the villagers who were not called up-on to render the forced labour, to pay an equivalent in money.⁶ Unscrupulous kings could reduce the weights and thus defraud all whom they had to pay.⁷ They would make deductions from the salary of village clerks and other government employees. Similar other devices might be resorted to.⁸ Śaṅkaravarman, in fact, reduced fiscal oppression to an art⁹ (883—902 A.D.). ### [c19.98](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.98) ¹ Ibid., V, 170. ### [c19.99](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.99) ² Ibid., IV, 347, 628, 639; VII, 1107. ### [c19.100](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.100) ³ Ibid., V, 167. ### [c19.101](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.101) ⁴ Ibid., VIII, 136. ### [c19.102](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.102) ⁵ Ibid., VIII, 2010. ### [c19.103](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.103) ⁶ Ibid., V, 172-76. ### [c19.104](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.104) ⁷ Ibid., V, 171-76. ### [c19.105](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.105) ⁸ Ibid., V, 175-76. ### [c19.106](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.106) ⁹ Ibid., V, 128-227. ### [c19.107](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.107) Justice still retained a primitive element in Kashmir. Once a fine is levied on the head of a family for misconduct on the part of a married woman.¹⁰ A king once sent for the books of a merchant and detected a forgery in his accounts. He promptly banished the merchant, deprived him of his property and made it over to the party wronged.¹¹ ### [c19.108](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.108) ¹⁰ Ibid., VIII, 3336. ### [c19.109](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.109) ¹¹ Ibid., VI, 41. ### [c19.110](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.110) Kashmir was the only region in ancient India which developed the art of historiography at all. Besides Kalhaṇa there were a few other chroniclers. On one of them, Ratnākara Purāṇa, Hasan based his Persian History of Kashmir which is abstracted in the Kashmiri writer Ānand Kaul’s History of Kashmir. But it adds little to the foregoing information on administration. ### [c19.111](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.111) Two other writers who flourished in Kashmir about the same time as Kalhaṇa may be briefly noticed. In the latter half of the eleventh century Vidyāpati Bilhaṇa, author of the play Karṇasundarī, wrote the Vikramāṅkadevacarita in which love, politics and warfare march side by side. The ideal of conquest and universal dominion in the narrow feudal sense of the term is there. The picture of Anantadeva of Kashmir as a model of virtue, generosity, veracity and heroism is interesting.¹ His brother Kṣitipati is not only a scholar himself but a patron of learning and withal a warrior.² The poet is employed as a tutor to the king’s daughter who falls in love with him. The incensed monarch sentences the poet to death but reprieves him afterwards. Bilhaṇa winds up the story of his own life by a solemn exhortation to princes, in view of the fleeting nature of all prosperity, to worship those true poets “who work the salvation of your bodies of glory through the nectar of their verse, and renouncing pride make them your spiritual guides.”³ ### [c19.112](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.112) ¹ Vikramāṅkadevacarita, XVIII, 33–39. ### [c19.113](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.113) ² Ibid., XVIII, 47–50. ### [c19.114](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.114) ³ Ibid., XVIII, 106–07. ### [c19.115](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.115) Kṣemendra, who lived in Kashmir in the eleventh century and probably came of a line of ministers, stands in a class by himself among later Sanskrit writers. In his Rāmāyaṇamañjarī and his Bhāratamañjarī he summarises the epics, reproduces their political teachings and seeks to re-capture their spirit and atmosphere. None the less, the influence of Dharma Śāstras and Niti Śāstras is there.¹ The same writer in his Bodhisattvâvadânakalpalatâ epitomised numerous Buddhist Jâtaka and Avadâna tales with equal success. Here, however, the political ideas are given in a Brahmanical setting. In the Bṛihatkathâmañjarī, based on Guṇâḍhya's Bṛihatkathâ, the politics of the age find a reflection. There is nothing new here. But it is worth while observing that federal-feudalism is reflected in these works as elsewhere. ### [c19.116](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.116) ¹ Ibid., Bhâratamañjarī (ed. Śivadatta and Kâśinâtha Pâṇḍuraṅga Parab), Śānti Parvan, Râjadharmâḥ, 298—307, 320, 328, 330—33, Âpaddharma, 581—96. ### [c19.117](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.117) Kalhaṇa's evidence on administration is corroborated and supplemented by the inscriptions from the neighbouring state of Chambâ² which recognised the suzerainty of Kashmir for long. The fundamental political conditions are the same here as prevailed in Kashmir and the rest of North India. It was about 700 A.D. that Meruvarman assumed the title Râjâdhirâja which here corresponded to the Mahârâjâdhirâja of the plains. Evidently the light yoke of Kashmir was shaken off and the dynasty of Meruvarman started on an independent career. These rulers stood forth as the ultimate suzerains of the petty chiefs who had so far been their sub-feudatories. Meruvarman further extended the area of his suzerainty and imposed his yoke on other chiefs. By the tenth century A.D. the line was firmly established with its capital at Chambâ.¹ Henceforward, Kalhaṇa never calls them sâmantas or vassals but addresses them as bhûpâla, nripati, etc.² The feudatories are called Râjas while the terms Râṇâs and Râjânakas seem to be applied to small feudatories or sub-feudatories who exercised various governmental prerogatives.³ A few centuries later their position was well understood by the Musalmân historians who call them zamîndârs, a designation which they applied to the feudatories of the central Muslim power in North India. In some respects the position of these petty feudatories and sub-feudatories resembled that of the feudal nobility in medieval France. ### [c19.118](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.118) ² The Chambâ inscriptions are published in J. Ph. Vogel's Antiquities of Chambâ State, Archæological Survey of India, New Imperial Series, Vol. XXXVI, Calcutta, 1911. Pp. 1—136 discuss the geography, ancient history and chronology of Chambâ and the general character of the inscriptions. Some of the inscriptions are also given in Ann. Rep. Arch. Surv., 1902-3, pp. 239—71. See also Ind. Ant., XVII, 1888, pp. 7 et seq., Chambâ Copper Plate Inscription of Somavarmadeva and Asatadeva (middle of the 11th century A.D.). ### [c19.119](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.119) ¹ J. Ph. Vogel, Antiquities of Chambâ State, Inscriptions, Nos. 6, 8, 9, 14-15. ### [c19.120](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.120) ² Ibid., p. 103. ### [c19.121](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.121) ³ Ibid., Nos. 13, 32. ### [c19.122](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.122) After a while the suzerains adopted the three grand titles, Parameśvara, Mahârâjâdhirâja, Paramabhaṭṭâraka, which were now in vogue all over India. ### [c19.123](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.123) Administrative Machinery. ### [c19.124](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.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. ### [c19.125](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.125) On the military side the Hastyaśvoṣṭrabalavyâprîtakas are the officers in charge of elephants, horse, camels, and infantry. Chariots are replaced by camels. The former had gone out of vogue all over India by this time and would be perfectly useless in a region like Chambâ. Vîrayâtrika is another military officer but its status and functions are obscure. The mention of tribes with officers—Khaśa, Kulika—shows that tribesmen headed by their own chiefs, occupied a notable place in the army. ### [c19.126](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.126) The scheme of administrative sub-divisions in Chambâ seems to have been a little different from that of the plains. ### [c19.127](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.127) Bhogika or Bhogapati and Viṣayapati are there, as usual, in charge of provinces and districts. But two other local officers—Nihelapatis and Tarapatis—are peculiar to the mountainous regions. They seem to be in charge of sub-divisions known as Nihelas and Taras, probably sub-divisions of the Viṣaya. Tara appears to be smaller than Nihela. The sub-division, immediately above the village, was supervised by an officer called Cāṭa, a term which bears a different meaning in the plains. Cāṭa is still the designation of the head of a paraganā in Chambā. In the earlier inscriptions the Cāṭa, \*inter alia\*, collects road-carriers and supplies for the king, his relations or officers when on tour. Here Bhaṭas seem to be subordinate to Cāṭas. As in the plains, Viniyuktakas seem to be the assistants, something like secretaries, of divisional officers, Bhogikas and Viṣayapatis. Here, as elsewhere, are a large number of messengers, classified into Dūtas, Gaṇāgamikas and Abhitvaramāṇas.¹ ### [c19.128](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.128) ¹ For the various officials, Ibid., Inscriptions, pp. 137—255, particularly the Suṅgal Copper Plate Inscription of Vidagha No. 15; the Chambā Copper Plate Inscription of Somavarman and Āsaṭa, No. 25; the Thuṇḍhu Copper Plate Inscription of Āsaṭa, No. 26. For the use of the term Cāṭa in modern Chambā, pp. 131-32. ### [c19.129](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.129) No. 15, the Suṅgal Copper Plate Inscription of Vidagdha, shows the fiscal system of Chambā and the neighbouring states to be the same as that of Kashmir. Here, as in the rest of India, justice was a source of revenue. The daśāparādhāḥ—ten offences, that is to say, the fines from ten offences, are enumerated among the privileges granted to favourites, with well-defined pieces of land. From the inscriptions of Chambā as from the others in the rest of India, it appears that the land was carefully measured and boundaries of fields and villages recorded with the most meticulous precision. The Sungal Copper Plate Inscription speaks of the “regular share and use, tax in kind and cash, and every other tribute due to the king,” showing that the royal dues were many. It appears that on extraordinary occasions the king’s officers demanded or perhaps forcibly appropriated many other perquisites. “Of our district officers and their subordinates and others,” so runs a passage in the royal Sungal grant, “no one will be allowed to alight at his (grantee’s) house, to cut or crush his corn, sugar-cane or pasture (?), whether green or ripe, nor to take rocika or ciṭolâ or to take cow’s milk, nor to carry off stools, benches or couches, nor to seize his wood, fuel, grass, chaff, and so on. Not even the slightest oppression or vexation should be inflicted on him, nor on his ploughmen, cowherds, maids, servants and all other people that are dependent on him.” It may be mentioned in passing that here as elsewhere grants were made sometimes to groups.¹ ### [c19.130](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19.130) ¹ Ibid., No. 25. ## Linked texts (18) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka) — Pāli - [Rājataraṅgiṇī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.kashmir.rajatarangini) — Kalhaṇa, Sanskrit - [Bhāratamañjarī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.bharatamanjari) — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit - [Rāmāyaṇamañjarī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.ramayana.sanksepa.ramayanamanjari) — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Indian Antiquary](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.corpora.ia) - [Bṛhatkathā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.brhatkatha) - [Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadanakalpalata) — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit - [Avadāna](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadana) — Sanskrit - [Bṛhatkathāmañjarī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.brhatkatha.brhatkathamanjari) — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit - [Vikramāṅkadevacarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.daksinatya.vikramankadeva) — Bilhaṇa, Sanskrit - [Karṇasundarī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.natika.karnasundari) — Bilhaṇa, Sanskrit - [A grant of king Dhruvasena I. of Valabhī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.west.maitraka.a-grant-of-king-dhruvasena-i-of-valabhi) — Sanskrit - [Chamba copper-plate inscription of Somavarmadeva and Asatadeva](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.north.camba.chamba-copper-plate-inscription-of-somavarmadeva-and) — Sanskrit - [A Copper-Plate Grant of the Gujarat Rashtrakuta King Dhruva II., Dated Saka 757](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.rastrakuta.a-copper-plate-grant-of-the-gujarat-rashtrakuta-king-dhruva) — Sanskrit - [Śilāśāsanam at Baḷagāṁve of the time of Sōmēśvaradēva I and Chāvuṇḍarāya, Śaka 970](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.kalyana-calukya.silasasanam-at-balagamve-of-the-time-of-somesvaradeva-i-and) — Sanskrit - [Kanheri Inscription (No. 15)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.rastrakuta.kanheri-inscription-no-15) — Sanskrit - [Baṅkāpūr Jain temple inscription of the Kādamba Harikēsaridēva (No. 2)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.kadamba.bankapur-jain-temple-inscription-of-the-kadamba) — Kannada --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c19) · Pramāṇa