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Urban Centres and Urban forces in c. 600-900 CE Rajasthan:
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217
kāraṇikas and pañcakula, the former representing the official element and the latter apparently the popular element. Elsewhere, the king pañcakula is entrusted first with the responsible task of fetching a sample of certain gold ingots of disputed ownership and later the counting of the entire quantity of ingots prior to restoration to the rightful owner. 178 References to pañcakulas occur in various postPratihāra inscriptions of Rajasthan.179
To conclude, a historical analysis of contemporary archaeological and literary evidence reveals a strong correlation between the distant military campaigns of the rulers of Rajasthan and the operation of multi-dimensional urban forces. The decline of certain ancient settlements such as Noh, Rang Mahal and Rairh, far from marking the decline of urbanism in Rajasthan, as postulated by Professor R. S. Sharma, 180 heralded the rise and proliferation of new settlements distinguished by their urban characteristics. Distinctive urban features such as craft specialization, commercial activity, monetary exchange, social heterogeneity and mobility, artistic activity, peaceful co-existence of different religious sects, secular orientation of educational system, secular sculptures, urban luxuries, urban leisure, cultivation of literature and a distinct urban administration testify to the existent urban economic base and distinctive urban millieu.
References
Cf. Shanta Rani Sharma, Society and Culture in Rajasthan, c. AD 700-900. (henceforth SCR) Delhi, 1996, pp.5-7; Dasharatha Sharma, Rajasthun Through the Ages (henceforth RTTA), Vol. I, Bikaner, 1966, p. 101.
Elliott, H.M. and J. Dowson. The History of India as Told by its Own Historians, Vol. I, London, 1866, rep. Allahabad, p. 126.
* V. Gordon Childe, 'The Urban Revolution. Town Planning Review. XXI, 1950, pp. 3-17. * What Happened in History. Harmondsworth, 1952, pp. 69, 78. SRJ, Braidwood, Near east and Foundations for Civilization, Oregon, 1950, p. 42. • Lewis Mumford, The City in History-lis Origins, Its Transformations and Prospects, 1961. reprint 1966, p.35.
Robert McC Adams, 'The Origin of Cities', Scientific American, 203, p. 154. & G. Sjoberg, The Pre-Industrial City: Past and Present, Illinois, 1960, pp.69-75.
C. Renfrew, Approaches to Social Archaeology. Edinburgh, 1984, pp. 248 f.
10 The following survey of temple remains is based on evidence presented in M. W. Meister, M. A. Dhaky and Krishna Deva ed. Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, Vol. 2. pr. 2. North India: Period of early Maturity, C. AD 700-900, Delhi, 1991, and C. P. Atherton. The Sculpture of early Medieval Rajasthan, e. J. Brill, 1997.
"Percy Brown, Indian Architecture, p. 135: M. A. Dhaky, 'The Genesis and Development of Maru-Gurjara Temple Architecture in Studies in Indian Temple Architecture, ed., Pramod Chandra, Delhi, 1975, pp. 144-45; M.W. Meister, op.cit., pp. 128 f; C. P Atherton, op.cit., p. 17.
> Bruce Trigger, 'The Determinants of Settlement Patterns, Time and Tradition: Essays in Archaeological Interpretations, ed. Idem, Edinburgh, 1978, pp. 107 f.
13 G. R. Willey, Settlements Patterns in the Viru Valley, 1980, p.1. "Epigraphia Indica. XI, pp. 299 f. Is Epigraphia Indica, IX, pp. 198 f.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1895, pp. 513 f. 17 P. C. Nahar, ed. Jaina Inscriptions, 2d ed., Delhi, 1983, no. 788. 18 Epigraphia Indica, IX, pp. 187 f. "Epigraphia Indica, XXXVI, pp. 47 f. 20 Epigraphia Indica, XX, pp. 97 f. "Epigraphia Indica, XXXIV, pp. 159 f. 12 Epigraphia Indica, XXVII, pp. 27 f. Epigraphia Indica, XXIV, pp. 329 f.
