The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c21.16

Language: English

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It is, however, Râjpûtânâ which furnishes the most striking example of the survival of Hindu institutions in the North. Here the Râjpûts established themselves after they had been driven out of the Gangetic plains. Though forced to acknowledge Muslim suzerainty from time to time, the Râjpût States, with the exception of Ajmer, the *point d'appui*, were never annexed to Muslim empire. In the eighteenth century and early years of the nineteenth, the Marâthâs harassed the Râjpûts but did not extinguish their autonomy. In modern times the British Government has left them pretty much to themselves. The old institutions were certainly modified by three factors—the presence of a large aboriginal population, constant pressure from outside and the example of Muslim organisation. Nevertheless, before modern influences and, particularly, the modern means of communication, warfare and industrial organisation affected Râjpûtânâ, its institutions resembled those of ancient India in many points. In Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Râjasthân, supplemented by more recent additions to our knowledge, Râjpûtânâ appears in some respects as a miniature edition of ancient India.² The small size of the state, internecine warfare, relationships of suzerainty and vassalage, constant attempts to throw off the yoke—all this carries the mind to the ancient age.

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In Râjpûtânâ there were gradations of feudal chieftains, in some places, four in successive order.¹ Here, too, vassals were sometimes associated in the administration of the suzerain's territory.² Suzerains and feudatories alike had big harems which, as in ancient India, sometimes reacted dangerously on the politics of the state. A state was parcelled out into a number of districts. In certain tracts a district comprised generally from fifty to one hundred townships and villages, though the proportion was sometimes exceeded. Many of these divisions were called Caurâsis—'eighty fours'—collections of 'eighty-four' villages, an expression which reminds one of Central Indian and Southern administrative jargon. Caurâsi, however, is like eighteen, a sort of sacred number among the Hindus. It only indicates that the average number of villages in such a district would range from somewhere about seventy-five to somewhere about a hundred. The chief officer of the district performed both civil and judicial functions. There was also another officer charged with military, fiscal and some judicial duties. The judicial procedure reminds one of ancient India. A town or a village had a Cabûtrarâ or court where the headman or the judicial officer, assisted by some inhabitants of the locality, marked out by public opinion for indefinite periods, administered justice.³ Taxes and tolls were numerous as in ancient India.

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Besides the land revenue and customs, we read of Ganim-burrâr, war-tax, corresponding perhaps to the Turuşkadaṇḍa of the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D., Ghar-burrâr, house-tax, Hal-burrâr, plough-tax, Neotâ-burrâr, marriage-tax.⁴ There were various other imposts in different regions, such as those on sales.¹ As in ancient days there were special frontier-officers always appointed from the headquarters and corresponding to the Antapâlas of literature and the inscriptions.² At the top of the administration stood a few ministers, often four in number, generally headed by a Pradhâna or chief minister who, needless to say, was responsible to the Râja.³ As in ancient days again, government servants, high and low alike, were not infrequently hereditary. Payments were often made in grants of land which, along with the hereditary transmission of office, must have accentuated feudalism. There were numerous court and household officers who held large grants of land. As in antiquity there were titles and other insignia of dignity such as standards, kettledrums, heralds.⁴ Râjpût magnates followed the ancient tradition of making grants to poets, scholars, priests, or favourites and remitting the whole or part of the revenues. The state sometimes concerned itself with minute affairs of life. Thus, it was once enacted that none shall attempt to carry anything away from the public feast.

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A Jaina obtained a charter to the effect that none shall eat after sunset.⁵ It may be added that custom and usage regulated the rights and tenures of land and public affairs in general in Râjpûtânâ as in ancient India.⁶