The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c10.s2.1

v1.c10.s2.1

THE Rāṣṭrakūṭa records often afford us glimpses of the civil administration and we can give with their help a fairly detailed account of the government machinery and its working. At its head stood the king. His office was hereditary and the crown usually passed to the eldest son, who was formally announced as the *yuvarāja* or the heir-apparent, when he became sufficiently old and experienced to discharge the duties of the office. The *yuvarāja* usually stayed at the capital and helped his father in carrying on the administration. He also used to accompany him on important military expeditions; sometimes he was himself entrusted with their conduct. Younger princes were usually appointed to the posts of provincial governors. Under the Rāṣṭrakūṭa administration, princesses are but rarely seen occupying administrative posts, as they sometimes did under the Chālukyas.¹ During a minority the government was usually in the hands not of dowager queens, but of male relations. In one case indeed we do find a crowned queen, Śīlabhaṭṭārikā, making a grant of land without any express mention of her husband, Dhruva, as permitting the transaction.² Whether this was merely an accidental omission or whether crowned queens of reigning kings regularly made grants of land on their own responsibility, we do not know. Probably the king's name was left out by an oversight or by mere carelessness or in order to shorten the wording of the charter.