The Rashtrakutas and their Times c16.11

c16.11

The *Rāṣṭrapatis* of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa administration were occupying approximately the position of the Rajjukas of Asoka, but they did not enjoy the same autonomy; the central government at Malkhed exercised a much greater control over them. Though often enjoying the status of Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaras or Mahāsāmantādhipatis, they had no power of making grants of villages; even Bankeya, the favourite governor of Banavasi under Amoghavarsha I, had to seek imperial permission in order to alienate a village in favour of a Jain temple.⁸ In the Nidgundi inscription of Amoghavarsha I⁹ we no doubt find Bankeya giving 6 mattars of cultivable land to a temple of Mahādeva at the request of his son; but it is not clear whether the land granted was government property or part of the private landed estate of the governor. Very probably the latter may have been the case.