Settlements and Spatial Markers Under the Vākāṭakas: An Epigraphic Study

Abstract

The study explores the political geography of historical regions, Vidarbha, i.e., territorial and administrative units described in the inscriptions of the Vākāṭakas dynasty that ruled the two hundred years (c.300- 500 CE) The study of these units is aimed at providing an understanding of the interaction of physical and human geography as reflected in the changing nature of settlement patterns both rural and urban and their political organization through time.The settlement names in the Vākāṭaka land-grant charters yield certain interesting insights into the physical geography and socio-economic character of the Vākāṭaka dominions.The suffixes betray the rural and urban character of settlements, indicating a remarkable expansion in the number of former. The prefixes indicate several interesting features of the settlements: regional concentration of mineral resources; local specialization in artisanal activities; agrarian expansion and local specialization in cultivation of certain crops; presence, rather proximity, of groves and plantations; migration of populations from outside central India and the northern Deccan; and admixture of Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical/tribal cultures.