Calcutta University Readership Lectures 1930. The Agrarian System in Ancient India

Originally, it seems, the authority of the Vedic king was completely sub- ordinated to that of the chiefs of the family and the clan, but afterwards, in the period of the later Santhitas and the Brahmanas, it underwent consider- able development, no doubt in connection with the expansion of the indo-Aryans over the rest of North- ern India. 8 A rudimentary organisation of the Vedic administrative m [...] This may bohgathered from the description of the functions of the officers severally called the samdhartii, the sthanika and the gopa in another part of the Arthagiistra. ' To begin with the lowest class of these officers, the gopa (loosely translated as village- accountant ') is required in the first instance to as- certain the total area of the villages (five or ten, as the case may be) within h [...] To the end of the sixth and first part of the seventh centuries belonged the Gurjara dynasty of Broach in G ujarat. 7 The land-grants of these kings refer to the udranga and uparikara, pointing to the existence of State ownership of lands in the villages. [...] The clauses of the Gurjara-Pratihara land- grants, while mentioning the privileges granted to the donees by the kings and Chiefs, sh4>w that alike in the Chiefs' estates and the Reserved tracts Of the king, the payments in kind and in cash were in use. 23 In addition to these familiar items of revenue some of the Chiefs' records 26 refer to the rents from per- manent and temporary tenants (udranga [...] During the period from the end of the eighth to that of the eleventh century Bengal was ruled for the most part by kings of the famous Pala dynasty, while towards its close minor dynasties such as the Chandras and the Varmans shared the possession of the country with the Palas. 57 The records of these kings refer to the payment in kind (bhiigabhogakara, bhogabhaga, rajabhogakara, or more generally