The Rashtrakutas and their Times c15.s1.19

c15.s1.19

The charters issued by the Śilāhāras, who were the feudatories of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas in Konkan, frequently describe the whole administrative machinery, naming all the ministers and their respective portfolios. Thus under the Śilāhāra prince Chittarājadeva, the ministry consisted of five members in 1024 A.D.⁴⁴ 61 years later under king Anantadeva of the same dynasty it was reduced to four.⁴⁵ The Yādavas of Chandor, who were ruling over a petty state, had a ministry of seven in 1069 A.D.⁴⁶ It is to be very much regretted that the Rāṣṭrakūṭa secretariate did not follow the practice of the Konkan feudatories and name the various ministers and their portfolios in the copper plates grants. We have, therefore, very little information about the actual strength of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa ministry and the various portfolios of its members. A perusal of the provisions upon the subject in the Niti and Smriti works shows that there were no hard and fast rules about the strength of the ministry. The number varied from 8 to 20; some predecessors of Kauṭalya preferred very small ministries of 2 to 4. In actual practice the Hindu king seems to have remembered the saying of Kauṭalya that the strength of the ministry should vary with the needs of the situation and acted accordingly. Considering the extent of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa empire, we may well presume that the ministry at the capital must have been fairly large, since those of the smaller contemporary feudatory states consisted of as many as 5 to 7 members. Unfortunately very few of the ministers are actually mentioned in our epigraphical records; their number and portfolios will have, therefore, to be inferred from the practice of the contemporary dynasties in the south.