113bC4l

66 ⁄ early medieval india
was only one of many reasons for battle. 129 For the conquerors, though, who
did not seek further domains, few of these inhibitions are evident. So, when
Karkaraja defeated Nagabhata, the Bhopal Rastrakuta prince is depicted by
the court poet as laughing in the devastated city of his enemy. 130
Thus the great cities of Kanauj, Varanasi, Gauda, and so forth had difficulty
retaining primacy as centers of culture, for their preeminence had revealed
their attractiveness to opportunistic invasion. Kanauj frequently became the
goal of armies, and this reality forced such rulers as the Pratiharas to found a
series of subsidiary palaces and regional centers in the periphery, well outside
the actual path of potential invasion. 131 Armies tended to approach cities along
established trade routes, so the greenbelts of those cities could be sources of
supply. Conversely, overland routes, which may have been shorter, were not
preferred. 132 An aggressive force approaching the regional capital might not
only seize the offices of government and, if possible, members of the royal
house. They might also avail themselves of the copperplate records (from which
they can get information on vassals), the treasury, the wealth of the large banking
houses, and other potential sources of revenue. Following this, the burning
of cities in the aftermath of the invasion was a means of dispersing the populace
and dissuading counterattacks, particularly if the invading force did not
wish to establish a new confederate on the throne or to acquire the territory for
itself. Thakur and Jha have reviewed the list of twenty-one mercantile cities
found in the eighth century Prakrit story, the Samaraiccakaha, and have found
that, for those having had some level of archaeological examination, virtually
every one experienced rather dramatic decline during this period. 133
Moreover, as has been discovered by China in the aftermath of the Cultural
Revolution, the United States in the wake of the Vietnam war, and the
Soviet Union after its conflict in Afghanistan, not all returning soldiers become
law-abiding citizens. Having learned the business of slaughter and intimidation,
the demobilized conscripts sometimes form criminal gangs, where
they apply their training in the use of armament and military tactics. The aftermath
of conflicts provides them a perfect series of abandoned buildings to
employ as hideouts. Requiring revenues to make up for the losses during the
campaign, the central government will just as frequently turn a blind eye to the
intrusion on civil authority and accept from the pirates whatever payments of
tribute that might serve its purposes.
This process assisted the transformation of the feudal practice of gift giving
and rewards into corruption and rapacity. Indeed, much of the discussion of the
reigns of previous dynasties in Kalhana’s RajataraNgini (1148–1149) is taken up
with the corruption of kings and officials (to which even Manu agrees). Kalhana