The Rashtrakutas and their Times c15.2

c15.2

King-in-ministry was the normal form of the government in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa empire. Feudatory administrations were also governed by the same principle. Neither literature, nor epigraphical records, nor accounts by foreign travellers disclose the existence of a non-monarchical form of government anywhere in the Deccan of our period. This is natural, for even in the north, governments were all monarchical at this time, as we know from the account handed down by Yuan Chwang. Tribal or republican forms of government, which are known to have been persisting in northern India down to the 4th century A.D., cannot, however, be traced in the south, even in the earlier period. This is rather strange when we remember that the village council was more democratic and elective in the south than was usually the case in the north. This may be due to the dearth of historical material relating to the earlier period of the history of the Deccan, or to the possibility of democracy not having extended beyond the scope of the village government.