The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c20.55

c20.55

The records of the Somavaṁśī kings of Kaṭak (Cuttack) in Orissâ disclose the same practices of suzerainty and vassalage as prevailed elsewhere in India. The suzerain, as usual, employed the three grand titles. Not only feudatories but also high government officials here make grants of land on their own account. Perhaps the system of remunerating high officials with assignments of land prevailed. Petty officials and clerks are called Kāyasthas.⁴ The Kudopali Plates of the time of Mahābhavagupta II, about the 12th century A.D., show that a feudatory could enjoy lofty titles and yet possess a very small territory. Puñja was a Māṇḍalika, a Rāṇaka and had obtained the five Mahāśabdas but he ruled only over fifteen villages.⁵ The plates of Vidyādharabhañjadeva bring to view feudatories and sub-feudatories.⁶ In the Orissâ grants the number of officials is smaller than in the Gangetic plains. It appears that administrative development there had not reached the stage which the Kanauj and Bengal grants, for instance, reveal.