THE REGIONAL KINGDOMS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIAHindu influences. The Shulkis, for instance, called themselves ‘First Lords of
the entire Gondama country’ and the Tungas referred to themselves as ‘First
Lords of the eighteen Gondamas’. Gondama is the area inhabited by the
tribe of the Gonds who even today live in the mountainous region of western
Orissa and eastern Madhya Pradesh.
The art of controlling the samantasThe expansion of medieval regional kingdoms and the rise of the samantas
created problems which could not be solved by means of the usual
patrimonial arrangements made by the ancient kings. The main problem
was the control of the outer circle of samantas. Outright conquest and
annexation of their territories would not only have required more
resources and administrative capacity of the central dynasty but also a
change in the royal ideology which measured the Hindu kings’ prestige in
terms of the number of tributary princes attending their court. Such princes
were, of course, always eager to regain their independence and, if the
central king suffered any kind of setback, they would try to increase their
autonomy and cut the tribute due to him. Contemporary texts therefore
describe the samantas as potential enemies of the king and their military
contingents as the weakest link in the king’s defences.
Accordingly, the success of the ruler of a regional kingdom depended, to
a large extent, on his abilities to curb the power of his samantas and to
instill some loyalty in them. But the inscriptions do not provide much
evidence of a successful control of the samantas. Few kings were able to
compel their samantas to send a permanent representative to his court or
to receive a royal emissary as a permanent watchdog at their court. The
Rashtrakuta king, Amoghavarsha, hit upon an interesting method of
solving this problem: he sent thousands of dancers and courtesans as spies
to the courts of his samantas. These ladies had to be maintained by the
samantas but had to report to the royal ambassador at the court of the
samanta who would then pass on the news to Amoghavarsha. It is not
known whether this interesting experiment of the ninth century was also
tried by other kings elsewhere.
A striking example of the way in which a king had to depend on his
samantas in crucial times was provided by King Ramapala when he was
looking for support against the Kaivartas of north Bengal. Ramapala
claimed that the country occupied by the rebellious Kaivartas was his own
(janaka-bhu) and, to recover it, he made the round of his samantas, asking
for help and giving them presents. The contemporary text Ramacharitam
describes in detail how Ramapala had to visit the chieftains of forest tribes
(atavika) and how he had to woo his samantas to aid him with elephants
and troops giving them gifts and land grants. Other medieval kings
probably experienced similar calamities.