North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION

Marāṭhī Kuḷmbī and the Gujarātī Kaṇbi and is now used to denote exclusively the cultivators. Though the term Kulika is now forgotten, the term kula is still preserved in the Bengali word kula-karma which means ‘cultivation.’ The upshot of this discussion is that Prathama-kulika represented, in the Adhishṭhān-ādhikaraṇa or the District Town Board, the Kulika class who were District Zamindars.

        There now remains the fourth term to be explained, namely, Prathama-kāyastha. We have, therefore, to trace the history of the Kāyastha caste in Bengal. The first question that arises is: when did the Kāyastha caste spring into existence in this province ? In this connection we have to note that there is a work called Nyāyakandalī by Śrīdhara, which is a commentary on Praśastapāda’s Vaiśēshikasūtra.¹ There he tells us that he composed the work at a place called Bhūrisṛishṭi in Dakshiṇa-Rāḍhā in Śaka 913=991 A.D. at the request of Pāṇḍudāsa, who was ‘the head-mark of a Kāyastha kula or clan.’ The Kāyastha caste had thus been formed in Bengal by the tenth century. But what was the primary occupation of the Kāyasthas before they developed into a caste ? A copper-plate was found at Tippera which is dated Gupta year 188==506 A.D. and speaks of Naradatta as the officer who drew up the grant.

>

There he has been designated Sāndhivigrahādhikaraṇa-Kāyastha,² that is, ‘a Kāyastha pertaining to the Department of Peace and War.’ It is difficult to say what the word Kāyastha here denotes, but there is here no indication at all that the Kāyasthas formed a caste about the end the fifth century A.D. What was then the exact duty of a Kāyastha between the fifth and the tenth centuries before the Kāyastha caste arose ? The Rāmgañj plate of Īśvaraghōsha, which belongs to the late Pāla period, mentions in the list of officials Mahākāyastha along with Mahākaraṇādhyaksha and Mahākshapaṭalika.³ This shows that up till the twelfth century A.D. the function of a Kāyastha in Bengal was different from that of Karaṇika or ‘the writer’ or Aksha-paṭalika or ‘the accountant’. But that does not determine the exact duty of the Kāyastha in Bengal. If, however, we turn to the earlier Pāla period and especially to the Khālimpur charter of Dharmapāla, the list of officials specified therein clusters together Jyēshṭha-Kāyastha, Mahāmahattara, Mahattara and Dāśagrāmika as Vishaya-vyavahārins⁴ or District Officers.It appears that in the Pāla period the lowest unit for the governance of a district was a group of ten villages in charge of an official who was for that reason styled Dāśagrāmika, that above him was a Mahattara, and above the latter a Mahāmahattara and that above every one of them was placed a Jyēshṭha-Kāyastha. Now the term Jyēshṭha-Kāyastha or the Chief Kāyastha implies that the other officials, namely the Mahāmahattaras, Mahattaras and Dāśagrāmikas under him were known simply as Kāyastha. They thus seem to be district officers all connected principally with the collection of revenue and designated Kāyastha in ancient Bengal as they were in Kashmir in the time of Kalhaṇa.⁵ Prathama-Kāyastha, like Jyēshṭha-Kāyastha, obviously denotes the highest grade among the Kāyasthas whose subordinate ranks were represented by the Mahāmahattara, Mahattara, and Dāśagrāmika. To revert to the main point, the Prathama-Kāyastha represents the class of officers who were in supreme charge of the collection of revenue.

       It will be seen from the above discussion that a district town in Bengal was administered in the Gupta period by a Board of Five. Three members of this Board were Nagara-śrēshṭhin, Sārtthavāha and Prathama-Kulika and represented respectively the Industrial, Commercial and Zamindari interests of the District. They seem to have been elected by their constituencies. What exactly the position of the Mahākāyastha was it is difficult to say. Apparently he was
______________________________________________________________

¹ R. P. Chanda’s The Indo-Aryan Races, p. 198.
² IHQ., Vol. VI, p. 45, lines 17-18.
³ Inscrs. of Bengal, Vol. III, p. 153, lines 13 and 15.
⁴ Ep. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 250, line 47.
⁵ Rājataraṅgiṇī, Bk. VII, verse 1226.