Imperial rulers and regional elites in early medieval central India (8th to 13th centuries) 1

Abstract

From late antiquity onwards, the relationship between imperial rulers and regional elites, particularly the subordinates, was expressed by a specific trans-regional Sanskrit vocabulary. The key-term sāmanta defined a structural phenomenon characteristic of the early medieval period in India. Since the 6th century, this expression was used with a narrower technical connotation, meaning ‘subdued regional prince who acknowledges the suzerainty of another king’. It has been mostly translated as ‘feudatory’ or ‘vassal’. The main historical sources for early medieval India are inscriptions: royal stone epigraphs and copper-plate charters. They regularly contain genealogies of rulers and subordinate kings and thus provide highly interesting information on the political activities of imperial rulers and regional elites. Strategic considerations regarding the relationship with the vassals are often also the topic of genealogies. Time and again, the rulers had to decide whom to establish in newly conquered territories: members of their own dynasty, of the previously reigning line, or of the regional elites. The prime object of almost all inscriptions engraved on copper plates and of a large number of stone epigraphs was to record religious endowments. There is plenty of evidence from different parts of medieval India that imperial rulers made endowments after being requested by subordinate princes; vassals, on the other hand, made religious grants with the consent of their overlords. Many rulers responded to the diverse interests of their wider courtly surroundings with specific religious grants.