The Rashtrakutas and their Times c19.s1.t2.1

c19.s1.t2.1

Neither Muslim accounts nor epigraphical records give us any information about the navy of the Empire. Even the grants of the S'ilāhāras, the Konkan feudatories of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, give no clue to the condition or the strength of the navy. There was no necessity of the naval force to carry on the warfare with the Gangas, Pallavas, Chālukyas, Pālas, and the Gurjara Pratīhāras, who were the principal foes of the Empire. The Arabs, with whom the Rāṣṭrakūṭas used to come into contact, were a maritime power, but they were always on terms of friendship with them, and this may have rendered the maintenance of a strong navy unnecessary. From Abu Zaid, a contemporary writer, we learn that some of the kings on the western coast, e. g. the king of Cape Kamorin, used to have their navies; it is, therefore, not unlikely that our Empire too may have had a naval force. But it is not in the least likely that its strength could have been anything like the strength of the army.