The Rashtrakutas and their Times c15.s1.9

c15.s1.9

less puppets in the hands of their tyrant masters. The same may perhaps have been the case under some of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa rulers like Govinda II or Govinda IV, who were notoriously licentious. But the power, influence and utility of a ministry vary with the capacity, nature and temperament of the king and the ministers even in the limited monarchies of our present day. The same may have been the case in a slightly aggravated degree in the past, when the constitutional checks of the modern types were unknown. But these occasional exceptions do not disprove the proposition that under normal conditions abler ministers exercised a great influence on the administration in the age of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas. How the weal of the kingdom was regarded as very intimately connected with the ministry may be seen from the following verse in a grant of Govana III of the Nikumbha feudatory family of Khandesh which, though belonging to a slightly later time than our period, may be regarded as embodying the views of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa age as well:—