Polity and Administration of the Gupta Empire
- The Gupta empire was essentially a monarchical state system, with all decision-making power concentrated in the hands of the Gupta monarchs.
1) The Central Administration
- King: The king was the embodiment of all powers.
- Gupta kings assumed imperial titles such as Maharajadhiraja, Parama-bhattaraka, and Parameshvara, and also claimed divine status — the Allahabad Prashasti describes Samudragupta as “a god dwelling on the earth.”
- The king was assisted by a council of ministers, known by designations such as mantrin, amatya, and sachiva, whose offices were most probably hereditary.
Some of the High-Ranking Functionaries
- Sandhivigrahika (minister for peace and war) — in charge of conducting relations with other states, including initiating war and concluding alliances and treaties.
- Kumaramatya — pre-eminent among the amatyas, equivalent in status to princes of royal blood; Kumaramatyas were variously attached to the king, the crown prince, the revenue department, or a province.
- Dandanayakas — high-ranking judicial or military officers.
- Baladhikrita — commander-in-chief of the army, and Mahashvapati — commander of the cavalry.
- Mahapratihara — chief of the palace guards, and Khadyatapakita — superintendent of the royal kitchen.
2) The Provincial Administration
- The Gupta empire was divided into provinces, known as deshas or bhuktis.
- Uparikas were the governors appointed by the king, assuming epithets such as maharaja, bhattaraka, and rajaputra.
- They carried out the administration of the bhuktis and also held military functions.
- They appointed the heads of district administration and the district town board.
- Goptri: Skandagupta’s Junagarh inscription refers to Parnadatta as the Goptri of Saurashtra — perhaps another term for governor.
- The provincial government also played an important role in the repair of waterworks — for example, the repair of the Sudarshana lake after it burst its embankments.
3) District Administration
- The provinces of the Gupta empire were divided into districts, known as vishayas.
- Vishayapati: the head of a vishaya, appointed by the provincial governor.
- He was assisted in his administrative duties by prominent members of the town, including:
- Nagara-sreshthin — chief merchant/banker
- Sarthavaha — chief caravan trader
- Prathama-kulika — chief artisan
- Prathama-Kayastha — chief scribe, or an officer in charge of revenue collection
- He was assisted in his administrative duties by prominent members of the town, including:
4) Below District Administration
- Vithis
- These were clusters of settlements, administered by ayuktakas and vithi-mahattaras.
- Grama (village)
- The Gramika and Gramadhyaksha performed important administrative functions.
- Mahattaras — village elders, village headmen, or heads of a family or community.
- The Ashtakula-adhikarana — a board of eight members — was headed by the mahattaras.
- The Pancha-mandali may have functioned as a corporate village body.
5) Revenue Administration
- Land revenue was the most important source of income for the Guptas.
- The Narada Smriti states that one-sixth of the agricultural produce should be taken as land revenue — this share was called bhaga.
- There were also taxes such as uparikara, kara, bhoga, bali, hiranya, and udranga, while Sulka was the commercial tax paid by organisations of traders.
System of Taxation during the Gupta Period
- The Narada Smriti asserts that subjects owe the king revenue as a reward for the protection he provides.
- Kamandaka’s Nitisara advises the king to behave like a florist or milkman in matters of taxation — just as cows must be tended at certain times and milked at others, and a florist tends his plants and waters them besides cutting them, the king should likewise help his subjects with money and provisions at certain times, and tax them at others.
- Kamandaka, however, warns sternly that royal officials who grow rich through ill-gotten gains should be “bled like a surgeon bleeds a swelling abscess.”
- The Nitisara, like the Arthashastra before it, emphasises the importance of the royal treasury and lists various sources of revenue.
- The many ambitious military campaigns of kings like Samudragupta must have been financed through revenue surpluses.
Revenue Department
- Gupta inscriptions reveal some details about the revenue department.
- Akshapataladhikrita: the keeper of royal records.
- The spurious Gaya copper plate inscription refers to Gopasvamin, the Akshapataladhikrita of Samudragupta, as having ordered the copper plate to be inscribed.
- Pustapalas: a number of pustapalas, or recordkeepers, maintained records of land transfers.
- Vakataka inscriptions mention the terms klipta and upaklipta, and also refer to vishti, or forced labour.
- Gupta inscriptions mention fiscal terms such as kara, bali, udranga, uparikara, and hiranya.
Bhaga
- This term denoted the king’s grain share, described by the Narada Smriti as one-sixth of agricultural produce.
- This is supported indirectly by the Paharpur and Baigram plates, which state that one-sixth of the merit accruing from a donation — probably equivalent to the king’s standard grain share — would go to the king.
- However, one-sixth was only a conventional figure, and there is no information on the actual amount realised by ancient states from farmers.
- Even the Manu Smriti, from an earlier period, indicates as much, stating that the king should take one-sixth, one-eighth, or one-twelfth of the crop yield from his subjects.
Bhoga and Kara
- Inscriptions of the Guptas and other contemporary dynasties often mention bhoga and kara alongside bhaga.
- Bhoga may have referred to periodical supplies — fruit, firewood, flowers, and the like — that villagers were obliged to give the king.
- Kara was a generic term for taxes, though it has also been variously interpreted as a specific tax: a property tax; an emergency tax levied on traders, artisans, and others; an agrarian tax over and above the king’s customary share; or a periodical tax levied on villagers.
Bali
- Bali is known from earlier times, and has been interpreted as:
- A generic term for taxes.
- The king’s grain share (i.e., the same as bhaga).
- A tax on the area of land.
- A religious cess.
Uparikara
- The uparikara may have been:
- A tax imposed on farmers without any proprietary rights in the soil.
- A tax on temporary tenants.
- An additional cess.
Udranga
- Udranga may have been a tax on permanent tenants, or related to dranga, which, according to the Rajatarangini, was a watch station — by extension, it may have been a sort of police tax levied on a district for maintaining the local police station.
- Yet another interpretation connects udranga to udaka, suggesting it may have been a water tax.
Hiranya
- Hiranya is generally understood as the king’s share of agricultural produce paid in cash.
- It may have been a levy in addition to the standard tax realised in grain or its cash equivalent.
Other Taxes
- Beyond these frequently occurring terms, certain other taxes remain even less certain in meaning.
- Vata-bhuta may refer to cesses for maintaining rites performed for the winds and spirits.
- Halirakara has been interpreted as a plough tax, or alternatively as an extra tax imposed on the area that could be cultivated by one plough in a single season.
Shulka or Tolls
- Urban sources of revenue included shulka, or tolls.
- The Bihar stone pillar inscription of Skandagupta refers to an official called the shaulkika — the collector of shulka.
- Vakataka inscriptions mention the terms klipta and upaklipta.
- According to D.C. Sircar, klipta may have meant a purchase tax or sale tax, while Maity suggests it may not refer to a tax at all, but to some royal right over land.
- The upaklipta may have referred to some additional or minor taxes.
- Other sources of state income included royal monopolies on treasure trove, deposits, mines, and salt reserves.
- Villagers were also obliged to provide royal officers on tour with grass for animals, hides for seats, and charcoal for cooking — villages converted into agraharas were exempted from such obligations.
Expansion of the Gupta Empire under Samudragupta (as per the Allahabad Pillar Inscription)
- The most important epigraph of Samudragupta’s reign is the prashasti on the unique Allahabad pillar, composed by his court poet, Harisena.
- The inscription runs to 33 lines, and in prose and verse, eulogises the achievements, conquests, and personality of Samudragupta — who emerges from the Allahabad Prashasti as a restless conqueror.
Conquests of Samudragupta and the Consequent Expansion of the Gupta Empire
- Samudragupta must have inherited an empire that included the Magadha area of Bihar and adjoining areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bengal, stretching to the Himalayan foothills in the north.
- His initial military campaigns were directed towards extending control over territories lying immediately beyond this area.
Campaigns in Aryavarta and Forest Regions
- Line 14 of the inscription refers to his capturing a king of the Kota family, possibly a ruler of the upper Ganga valley.
- Line 21 refers to Samudragupta violently exterminating a number of Aryavarta kings — namely Rudradeva, Matila, Nagadatta, Chandravarman, Ganapatinaga, Nagasena, Achyuta, Nandin, and Balavarman — and reducing all the kings of the forest to subordinate status.
- This annexation extended the Gupta empire over the Ganga-Yamuna valley, up to Mathura and Padmavati in the west.
Campaigns in Frontier Areas and Subordination of Sanghas
- Line 22 of the prashasti refers to rulers offering tribute, obeying Gupta orders, and coming to perform obeisance before Samudragupta.
- These included the frontier kings of Samata, Davaka, Kamarupa, Nepala, and Kartripura.
- The ganas (tribal republics) subordinated in this manner included the Malavas, Arjunayanas, Yaudheyas, Madrakas, Abhiras, Prarjunas, Sanakanikas, Kakas, and Kharaparikas.
- The relationship between the Gupta emperor and all these groups carried certain elements of a feudatory relationship.
Campaign in the South
- Lines 19 and 20 of the inscription refer to Samudragupta having captured and then released several rulers from Dakshinapatha.
- These included the rulers of Kosala, Mahakantara, Kairala, Pishtapura, Kusthalapura, Erandapalla, Kanchi, Avamukta, Vengi, Palakka, Devarashtra, and all other kings of Dakshinapatha.
Others
- Line 23 of the inscription mentions certain rulers rendering all kinds of service to Samudragupta, seeking the use of the Gupta garuda seal, and entering into matrimonial alliances with the Guptas of their own accord.
- By the end of his reign, Samudragupta’s empire appears to have comprised most of northern India, with the exception of Kashmir, western Punjab, Rajasthan, Sindh, and Gujarat.
- In the north-west, Samudragupta claims to have impressed his might upon the Shakas and the Kushanas.
- In the south, the kings of Dakshinapatha were humbled but suffered neither annexation nor reduction to feudatory status.
- It can be concluded that the Guptas did not create an all-India empire under their direct control; rather, through their successful military campaigns, they established a network of political relationships of paramountcy and subordination that extended over a large part of the subcontinent.
