The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c10.5

v1.c10.5

THE term Rāṣṭrakūṭa, the surname of the new dynasty which supplanted the Cālukyas, has no ethnic or tribal significance. Just as in the medieval period the terms Deśmukhs and Desā'is denoted officers in charge of *deśas* or districts, so also the term Rāṣṭrakūṭas designated officers in charge of territorial divisions called *rāṣṭras*, into which kingdoms used formerly to be divided. The officer in the administrative charge of a *grāma* (village) was called a grāmakūṭa (village headman); similarly one in charge of a *rāṣṭra* was called a rāṣṭrakūṭa. Other variations of this term like rāṣṭriya in Sanskrit and raṭhika in Prākrit occur in earlier inscriptions. Both rāṣṭrakūṭas and grāmakūṭas figure among the officers exhorted not to disturb the peaceful enjoyment of the land grants given in the Deccan charters of the seventh and the eighth centuries A.D. Nay, we find them in a grant of Dantidurga himself, the founder of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa dynasty, who, himself a rāṣṭrakūṭa, is seen exhorting other rāṣṭrakūṭas not to interfere with the enjoyment of the grant given by him in A.D. 742.¹