Mahasamanta-Maharaja Visnugena (Visnubhata) and Samanta Avanti
Summary
Dines Chandra Sircar edits and discusses a newly discovered copper‑plate inscription in the possession of the Government Epigraphist for India. The record, written in a western Indian variety of the Southern Brāhmī script, is dated to around A.D. 592 and issues an order from a ruler named Viṣṇuṣeṇa who holds numerous feudatory titles such as Mahākartā‑kṛtika, Mahādandanāyaka, Mahāpratīhāra, Mahāsāmanta and Mahārāja. The order is addressed to subordinate officials and guilds at Lohāṭā and instructs them to respect the privileges (ācāra‑sthitipātra) previously granted to merchants. Sircar identifies this charter as one of the earliest known examples of a stithi‑vyavasthā, a legal document that granted merchants protection and settled their disputes according to customary law. The inscription includes an endorsement by a subordinate ruler, Sāmanta Avanti, who later confirmed the merchant community’s privileges. Both the main charter and the endorsement use titles similar to those found in Maitraka inscriptions, leading Sircar to suggest that Viṣṇuṣeṇa may have been a member of the Maitraka dynasty of Valabhī. Palaeographical features and the use of the Vikrama era date of 649, which corresponds to A.D. 592, support this conjecture. Sircar compares the epigraph with copper‑plate grants from the Kalacuri and Gupta‑Valabhī rulers and argues that the record may place Viṣṇuṣeṇa’s rule between A.D. 589 and 605. The article analyses the administrative structure implied by the document. Officials such as the rājan, rājasthānīya and bhāṭa executed the ruler’s order, while the Dhruvādhibhaṭa—an official attested only in Maitraka records—oversaw revenue collection. The endorsement reveals that a local feudatory, possibly ruling from Dharpura, acknowledged Viṣṇuṣeṇa’s authority and reaffirmed the stithi‑vyavasthā for merchants at Lohāṭā. Sircar concludes that the document provides rare evidence of early merchant charters in western India and sheds light on the complex hierarchy of Mahāsāmantas and samantas who governed under larger dynasties.
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Conclusion
By publishing this copper‑plate charter, Sircar adds an important source for the political and economic history of early medieval western India. The document shows how a Mahāsāmanta ruler delegated authority to officials and secured the rights of merchants through legal charters, while a subordinate samanta later reaffirmed those rights. The analysis suggests that Viṣṇuṣeṇa belonged to the Maitraka milieu and that merchant charters were already well‑established by the early seventh century.