North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION

carts travelling in caravans. These caravans, long lines of small two-wheeled carts, each drawn by two bullocks, were a distinctive feature of the times . . . There were taxes and octroi duties at each different country entered; and a heavy item in the cost was the hire of volunteer police who let themselves out in bands to protect caravans against robbers on the way.”¹ India seems to have hardly changed in this respect up till a century ago, the only difference being that the original Sārtthavāhas were later on known as Vanjārās or Lōbānās. These last “were the great travelling traders and carriers of Central India, the Deccan and Rajputana; and under the Afghān and Mughal empires were the commissariat of the imperial forces.”² It will thus be seen that the Nagaraśrēshṭhin represented the special industries of the district and the internal mercantile dealings, and Sārtthavāha the external commercial intercourse between province and province and country and country.

        We have now to consider the full significance of the phrase Prathama-kulika. Kātyāyana, the author of a Smṛiti, says in one place: Kulānāṁ tu samūhas=tu Gaṇaḥ sa parikīrtitaḥ, “Gaṇa is an aggregation of clans.”³ It seems that originally when a gaṇa or a tribe conquered some territory, the different kulas constituting it divided the land among themselves. Every kula had its autonomy, such, e.g., as the Śākya kula to which the Buddha belonged; and the several kulas confederated themselves into the tribal oligarchy or gaṇa such e.g., as the Lichchhavi gaṇa.⁴ Kulas were thus petty Zemindaries, and their heads were styled Kulikas. There can be no doubt that up till later times the Kulikas played some part in fiscal administration in different provinces. It is a well-known fact that when the grant of land or village is made by a king, the copper-plate charter generally specifies a list of officials and also of peoples who are likely to be connected with the administration of the grant or in any way affected by it. Now, if we take any one of these plates published by J. Ph. Vogel in Antiquities of Chamba State,⁵ we find that after the specification of the state officials mention is made of Khaśa-kulikas. The same is the case with the copper-plate grants of the Pāla kings of Bengal. They, too, specify first the state officials and make mention thereafter not only of the Khaśa, but also of the Gauḍa, Mālava, and Hūṇa, Kulikas.⁶ That the Kulikas cut a more important figure in the Gupta period may be seen from the fact that several seals of Kulikas have been found in the excavations of Basāḍh, such as those of Kulika –Nāgadatta, Kulika-Hari, Kulika-Ōmabhaṭṭa.⁷ What is further noteworthy is that there has been picked up at least one seal from Basāḍh where with the individual name Hari is coupled not simply Kulika but rather Prathama-kulika,⁸ showing that this Hari was the first and foremost of the Kulikas of Vaiśālī. Kulas or clans seem to have been further divided into Kuṭumbas or families. The heads of these Kuṭumbas are similarly called Kuṭumbins; and they have been actually referred to as such in the cave inscriptions of Mahārāshṭra.⁹ Thus in one of these inscriptions a Hālakīya or agriculturist named Usabhaṇaka has been actually styled Kuṭumbin, whereas his son is described merely as a Gṛihapati, that is, a member of the Middle Class as it was then called. In fact, the Kuṭumbins were the peasant proprietors and the Kulikas the Zamindars. In later times, though the term Kulika was forgotten, the term Kuṭumbin is traceable in the
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¹ Buddhist India, p. 98.
² H.A. Rose’s A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Panjab and North-Western Frontier Province, Vol. II, pp. 62-63.
³ Carmichael Lectures, 1918, p. 151.
⁴ Ibid., pp. 149 and ff.
⁵ p. 166, line 8.
⁶ Gauḍa-lēkhamālā, p. 61, line 36.
⁷ A.R. ASI., 1903-04, p. 111, Nos. 33, 39 and 40.
⁸ Ibid, 1913-14, p. 139, No. 277-A.
⁹ Ind. Ant., Vol. XLVIII, p. 80.