The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c20.178

c20.178

Two grants of Daṇḍimahâdevî from the Gañjam district of the modern Northern Circars (in the Southern Presidency), of the thirteenth century A.D., are unusually interesting as bringing to view female sovereigns who appear so rarely in the annals of ancient India. The queen Daṇḍimahâdevî is styled Paramabhaṭṭârikâ, Mahârâjâdhirâja Parameśvarî. Her mother had also been a sovereign. Daṇḍimahâdevî issues the grant in the usual manner and addresses her command first to Mahâsâmantas and Mahârâjas—the big feudatories. Later, special mention is made of the Sâmantas and Sâmavâjins who dwelt in the eastern sub-division of Vardâkhaṇḍa-viṣaya and who constituted a class of feudatories by themselves. Towards the end mention is made of a Râṇaka, probably a small feudatory, who acts as the Dûtaka. The central local officers mentioned here are the same as in the Northern grants of the last age of ancient India. The village is granted with the weavers, Gukuṭas, distillers of spirituous liquors, other artisans, hamlets, thickets, and landing-places in accordance with the Bhûmichidra maxim. The meaning is that some dues were usually levied from those who followed the occupations or used the places enumerated and that all such dues were now alienated to a Brâhmaṇa.⁴