The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c10.s2.29

v1.c10.s2.29

Rāṣṭrakūṭa records refer on rare occasions to Viṣaya-mahattaras (elders of the district) and Rāṣṭra-mahattaras (elders of the province), suggesting the existence of popular bodies at the district and provincial headquarters, discharging functions probably similar to those of the councils of village elders (Grāma-mahattaras) in Indian villages today. We have, however, no direct evidence to show that the elders of the district or the province had actually a council of their own, regularly meeting at intervals and discharging important administrative functions. A popular assembly or parliament at the Rāṣṭrakūṭa capital is nowhere referred to, and probably no such body existed. In former days, when communications were difficult, the regular meeting of a popular assembly at a distant capital was not easy to arrange. In the Rāṣṭrakūṭa administration, the popular voice could not make itself effectively felt in the central but only in the village administration. We must, however, remember in this connexion that the village councils of this period discharged many of the functions of the provincial and central governments of modern times; the popular element could effectively control the administration by having a decisive voice in these local bodies.