Side by side with these, the supreme position held by women as administrators and rulers of land cannot escape our attention. Here we have instances of three types:

1. Women who acquired the right to sovereignty by virtue, of their marriage and ruled independently;

2. Women who got their right to sovereignty by virtue of their birth; and

3. Women who ruled along with their husbands.

These are obtained from inscription and Tamrasosasanas, or copper-plate grants, which are considered as legal records for granting lands or villages to a grantee, who is generally a learned Brahmin. Unless these are executed by an actual ruler or with his consent such grants of lands or villages are not considered as valid. From these grants we can infer whether they were de facto rulers or not.

To the first category belongs the grant of Tribhuvana Mahadevi, the daughter of Rajamalla, a king of Southern India and wife of Lalitabharadeva of the Kara family of Guhesvarapataka. After the death of her husband the feudatory chiefs approached her with a request to accept the sovereignty and cited the instance of Devi Gosvamini, who belonged to the same family and administered her kingdom under similar circumstances.