The Rashtrakutas and their Times c15.s1.42

c15.s1.42

Since many of the ministers and governors were military leaders, it is obvious that the commander-in-chief must have been a member, and an important one, of the ministry. Nitivākāmṛta⁵⁹ no doubt lays down that commanders of the army should not be members of the council, but Śukra includes the commander-in-chief in the ministry and the Deccan administrations are seen to be following the view of S'ukra, rather than that of the Deccanese Somadeva. The war-minister is called Sachiva by S'ukra, (60) Kampana by Kalhaṇa (61) and Mahāprachaṇḍa-daṇḍanāyaka by a Yādava record. The Gahadwala records use the prosaic title of Senāpati. It is extremely probable that in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa ministry there may have been several war-ministers like the foreign ministers. The empire was a large one and constantly engaged in warfare with its neighbours; hence this inference seems to be most natural and almost certain. The status of generals and war-ministers was very high. Kālidāsa, the commander-in-chief of the forces of Jagadekamalla, was also his premier as already shown. The Kalas inscription of Govinda IV (62) informs us that generals were supplied with palatial buildings, were permitted to use elephants for riding, were invested with brilliant robes, and cunningly worked staffs, which were the insignia of their office, and were authorised to use a multitude of curiously made parasols. They had, like the Mahāsāmantas, the great musical instruments of their own office. These privileges are no doubt mentioned in connection with generals. But we have seen already that even civil ministers were generals and, therefore, the war-minister could hardly have been a civilian; hence he must have enjoyed similar, if not higher, honours and privileges. Similar privileges were continued under the later Chālukyas, one of whose generals, Kālidāsa, was the supreme chief of great feudatories and entitled to the Pañchamahāśabdas. (63) Examples are not unknown of grateful monarchs commemorating the memory of their successful generals by granting them villages renamed after them. (64) When it is remembered that during our period the successful general of to-day had every chance of becoming a king or even an emperor to-morrow, the privileges associated with the office of a general or war-minister need not cause any surprise.