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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
THE GUPTA SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION The grade of the Daṇḍanāyaka survived long after the Gupta rule but was ultimately merged into the Mansabdari of the Moghul period.1 But how far earlier than the Gupta period was it in existence ? That is the question we have now to consider. So far as our knowledge goes, we find it first mentioned in the Kushāṇa records. Thus, one Mathurā inscription2 speaks of a Mahādaṇḍanāyaka of the time of Huvishka. Similarly, the Māṇikiālā inscription3 of the time of Kanishka and dated in the year 18 of his reign makes mention of another Daṇḍanāyaka called Lala who calls himself a scion of the Gushaṇa (Kushāṇa) race. It is worthy of note that this rank of the Daṇḍanāyaka was unknown prior to the time of the Kushāṇas. At any rate, so far as I know, it is not mentioned in Kauṭalya’s Arthaśāstra. Nor is the term met with in the epigraphs of the pre-Kushāṇa period. We shall perhaps be not far from right if we say that this rank became known to India with the introduction of the feudal system of the Kushāṇa administration, and later was replaced by the Persian term Mansabdar in the time of Akbar.
It will be seen that it does not at all seem likely that Daṇḍanāyaka denoted ‘a general’.
There were other terms which are distinctively of a military character. One of these is Mahāśvapati occurring in a legend just referred to. A somewhat more extensive term is Bhaṭāśvapati,
which is mentioned on a seal thus: Bhaṭāśvapati-Yakshavatsasya,4 “(seal) of Yakshavatsa,
Commander of Infantry and Cavalry.” A still more extensive term is Sēnāpati, which, although
it does not occur in the inscriptions of the Gupta sovereigns, is found in the copper-plate
charters of the Vākāṭaka king Pravarasēna II, who was a grandson of Chandragupta II.
Two of these charters were drawn up when Chitravarman5 and Bāppadēva6 were the Sēnāpatis respectively. In later times also Sēnāpati was distinct from Daṇḍanāyaka. Thus, in the Amgāchhi
plate of the Pāla king Vigrahapāla, Mahāsēnāpati is mentioned separately from Malādaṇḍa-nāyaka.7 Similarly, in the Barrackpur grant of the Sēna ruler Vijayasēna also Mahādaṇda-is distinguished from Daṇḍanāyaka.8 In the pre-Gupta period also Mahāsēnāpati is mentioned
separately from Mahādaṇḍanāyaka. Thus one Nāgārjunikoṇḍa inscription speaks of one Mahāsēnāpati Mahātalavara Mahādaṇḍanāyaka Khaṁdavisākhaṁṇaka (==Skandaviśākha).9 Here
Mahāsēnāpati does not seem to be a title of nobility, because his wife Aḍavi-Chāṁtisiri has been
styled only Mahātalavarī, and not Mahāsēnapatinī as other ladies of the House of king Chāṁtamūla have been. A fourth term connected with the military department is Balādhikṛita and
Mahābalādhikṛita. The former occurs on a Basāḍh seal bearing the legend: Yuvarāja-bhaṭṭāraka-pādīya-Balādhikaraṇasya.10 It is found also in the Shāhpur stone image inscription11 of the later
and feudatory Gupta chieftain Ādityasēna. Mahābalādhikṛita is found in line 20 of the Majhgawāṁ plates12 of the Mahārāja Hastin as the designation of the Dūtaka called Nāgasiṁha.
Nay, exactly the same designation, namely, Mahābalādhikṛita is coupled with the name of
Pṛithivīshēṇa, a staff officer of Kumāragupta I, mentioned in the Karamḍāṁḍā epigraph
(No. 21 below). We shall not be far from right if we say that Balādhikṛita, Mahābalādhikṛita and Sēnāpati were to one another what a quartermaster-general, a brigadier-general and
commander-in-chief are in the British military service. A fifth term relating to the Military 1 IHQ., Vol. XII, pp. 225 and ff.
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