The Rashtrakutas and their Times c16.4

c16.4

In the Rāṣṭrakūṭa administration the provincial governors had considerable powers over their subordinates. Some idea of this control may be had by a few concrete cases. In 912 A.D., when Mahāsāmanta Kaḷaviṭṭarasa was the governor of Banavasi, a subordinate of his, who was the Mamlatdar or Tahsildar (Nālgāvuṇḍa) of Giduvalge 70, became disaffected and was about to escape to the neighbouring kingdom of Gangawadi. While attempting to do so, he was arrested in Kumbise district by the orders of the governor.(4) When Chitravāhana, the Commissioner of Alurakheda 6,000, became insubordinate in c. 797 A.D., the governor of Banavasi had to lead an attack against him.(5) These instances would make it clear that the provincial governors had large military forces under them, which were used in times of peace for controlling local officers and feudatories and for preserving internal peace and order. In times of war with the neighbouring kingdoms these forces were requisitioned by the imperial government to fight its own battles; this is made clear by the Konnur inscription of Amoghavarsha I,(6) where we find the Banavasi governor now fighting with the Gangas, then running up to the capital to quell an insurrection there with his own battalions, and then again joining the imperial army in its expedition against the Pallavas. The same record represents Bankeya as coming at the head of the hereditary (*Maula*) forces; this would show that military service was a normal feature of the duties of the provincial governors and that they used to maintain hereditary troops which were probably maintained, as will be shown in Chapter XII, by the assignment of entire villages to them.