Origin of Rashtrakutas
Encyclopedia
The origin of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty
has been a controversial topic and has been debated over the past decades by historians, but it is said that the Rashtrakuat Dynasty was started when a warioir in charge named as Dantidurga defeated the Chalukya overloard. The differing opinions mostly revolve around issues such as the home of the earliest ancestors of the medieval Rashtrakutas, a possible southern migration during the early part of the first millennium and the relationship between the several Rashtrakuta dynasties that ruled small kingdoms in northern and central India and the Deccan in the 6th century - 7th century. Further, the relationship of these medieval Rashtrakutas to the most important and famous dynasty, the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta
of the 8th century - 10th century time period has also been debated. Also contested is whether the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta were related by ancestry to the early Kannada, Maratha
, Reddi, Rajput
or Punjabi
communities of the Deccan and northern India. (Elliot,Numismata Orientalia,Appendix,p.149'Muliya Thimmappavva Kannada Desa Tattsavu Dharwar.1954.p.6)says that they were of Abhira stock.
While the history of the early Rashtrakutas has caused much debate, the history of the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta
(in present day Gulbarga
) of the 8th-10th centuries can be accurately constructed because numerous contemporaneous inscriptions and texts refer to them. The crux of the Manyakheta empire extended from the Kaveri river
in the south to the Narmada
in the north. At their peak they were the only south Indian empire that conquered regions in far northern India (Kannauj
) as well as the extreme south (Tamilakam
). The Lata branch of the empire (in present day Gujarat) was an important dynasty belonging to the Manyakheta family line which later merged with the Manyakheta kingdom during the 9th century.
, contemporaneous Kannada literature such as Kavirajamarga
(850) and Vikramarjuna Vijaya
(941), Sanskrit writings by Somadeva, Rajashekara, Gunabhadra, Jinasena and others and the notes of Arab travellers of those times such as Suleiman, Ibn Haukal, Al Masudi, Al Istakhri and others. Scholars have left no topic unstudied in an effort to accurately propose the history of the Rashtrakutas. Theories about their lineage (Surya Vamsa or Chandra Vamsa), native region and ancestral home have been proposed using clues from inscriptions, royal emblems, ancient clan names such as "Rashtrika", epithets such as Ratta, Rashtrakuta, Lattalura Puravaradhiswara, names of royalty, coins and contemporaneous literature. These theories from noted scholars have resulted in claims that the Rashtrakutas were from either Rajput
, Kannadiga,Reddi, Maratha
, or Punjabi
origin.
) and the use of the epithet "Ratta" in many later inscriptions has prompted a claim that the earliest Rashtrakutas were descendants of the Arattas, natives of the Punjab region from the time of Mahabharata
who later migrated south and set up kingdoms there, while another theory points more generally to north western regions of India. Based on this theory, the Arattas may have become natives of the Deccan having arrived there during the early centuries of the first millennium.
This is counter to the argument by other scholars that the term Rishtika used together with Petenika in the Ashokan inscriptions implied they were hereditary ruling clans from modern Maharashtra region and the term "Ratta" implied Maharatta ruling families from modern Maharashtra region. But this has been rejected on the basis that from ancient books such as Dipavamsha and Mahavamsha in Pali language it is known the term Maharatta and not Rashtrika has been used to signify hereditary ruling clans from modern Maharashtra region and the terms Rashtrika and Petenika appear to be two different displaced ruling tribes.
It is noted by another scholar that ruling clans called Rathis and Maharathis were in power in parts of present day Karnataka as well in the early centuries of the Christian era, which is known inscriptions from the region and further proven by the discovery of lead coins from the middle of 3rd century bearing Sadakana Kalalaya Maharathi in the heart of modern Karnataka region near Chitradurga
. In the face of these facts it is claimed it can no longer be maintained that the Rathi and Maharathi families were confined only to present day Maharashtra. It is claimed there is sufficient inscriptional evidence that several Maharathi families were related to Kannadiga families by marriage and they were naga
worshippers, a form of worship very popular in the Mysore region (modern Karnataka). Also, no evidence to confirm that these families were either Aryan or non-Aryan is available.
The epithet Ratta, it is also claimed is a Kannada word from which the word Rashtrakuta has been derived. The use of the word Rattagudlu (meaning an office) has been found in inscriptions from present day Andhra Pradesh dated prior to the 8th century indicating it was a South Indian word. From the Deoli plates and Karhad records it is argued there was a prince called Ratta and his son was called Rashtrakuta. Hence it has been argued the Rashtrakutas were of Kannada origin. It is also said the term Rashtra means "kingdom" and Kuta means "lofty" or Rashtra means province and Kuta means chieftain.
Another epithet used in inscriptions of Amoghavarsha I was Lattalura Puravaradhiswara. It is proposed that it refers to their original home Lattalur, modern day Latur in Maharashtra state, bordering Karnataka. This area it is claimed was predominantly Kannada speaking based on surviving vestiges of place names, inscriptions and cultural relics. It is explained that Latta is a Prakrit variation of Ratta and hence Rattana-ur became Lattana-ur and finally Lattalur. Another theory is that Latalurapura is modern day Ratnapur in Bilaspur district of central India.
or modern Amravati district
, modern Maharashtra) had names that were very similar to the names of Kings of the Manyakheta dynasty. From the Tivarkhed and Multhai inscriptions it is clear that the kings of this family were Durgaraja, Govindaraja, Svamikaraja and Nannaraja. These names closely resemble the names of Manyakheta kings or their extended family, the name Govindaraja appearing multiple times among the Manyakheta line. These names also appear in the Gujarat line of Rashtrakutas whose family ties with the Manyakheta family is well known.
It has been noted that princes and princesses of the Rashtrakuta family used pure Kannada names such as Kambarasa, Asagavve, Revakka and Abbalabbe as their personal names indicating that they were native Kannadigas
. It has been pointed out that princesses of family lineage belonging to Gujarat signed their royal edicts in Kannada even in their Sanskrit inscriptions. Some examples of this are the Navsari and Baroda plates of Karka I and the Baroda plates of his son Dhruva II. It has been attested by a scholar that the Gujarat Rashtrakuta princes signed their inscriptions in the language of their native home and the race they belonged to. It is well known that the Gujarat line of Rashtrakutas were from the same family as the Manyakheta line. It is argued that if the Rashtrakutas were originally a Marathi speaking family, then the Gujarat Rashtrakutas would not have signed their inscriptions in Kannada language and that too in far away Gujarat. The theory that under the rule of the Badami
Chalukyas of Kannada country, Kannada speaking dynasties were established in the far corners of the Chalukyan empire in Gujarat, Andhra and Berar
(present day Vidharba region in modern Maharashtra) and hence the ancestors of King Dantidurga
, the founder of the Manyakheta empire were Kannadigas. It is further claimed there is proof that in the locality where Dantidurga lived Kannada was the spoken language.
The only Rashtrakuta family whose royal emblem is similar to that of the rulers of Manyakheta, the golden eagle or Garuda
lanchhana (emblem) is that of the family that ruled from Amravathi district of modern Maharashtra
. It has been theorised that this line may possibly have been ancestors of the Manyakheta kings. Their inscriptions (Tivarkhed and Multhai) were issued from Achalapura (modern Elichpur) which may have been their capital. Another Rashtrakuta family ruling from Manapur in Malwa region with its founder King Abhimanyu had the emblem of a lion. This makes it improbable that they were the ancestors of the Manyakheta family.
While the Garuda is normally indicative Vaishnavite leanings, it has to be observed here that earlier coins belonging to King Krishna I
's period use the legend Parama Maheshwara, which in turn indicate staunch Shaivite leanings. This change in symbology has been used to theorise that the Rashtrakutas may have originally been Shaivites and embraced Vaishnavism later.
was born to the Yadava Satyaki, 1800 coins of King Krishna I (772), his successor calls him Parama Mahesvara indicating his solar lineage origin and Shaiva faith. An inscription of King Govinda III
(808) mentions "by the birth of this virtuous king, the Rashtrakuta dynasty became invincible just as the Yadava dynasty by the birth of Lord Krishna". This is considered only a comparative statement. Only a few records attest to a possible Yadava connection and even the descendants of the Rashtrakutas such as the Gahadavalas of Kanauj, Rathors of Rajasthan claim to be from Surya Vamsha (solar lineage), a sure sign the Rashtrakutas belonged to the Surya Vamsha. The opinion that the Rashtrakutas did not belong to the Yadava line is supported by another scholar as well.
has been free of such confusion. It is clear from inscriptions, coinage and prolific contemporaneous literature that the court of these Rashtrakutas was multi-lingual, used Sanskrit
and Kannada as their administrative languages and encouraged literature in Sanskrit and Kannada.Kamath (2001), p73 However this period was the very end of the classical era of literary Sanskrit and Prakrit. As such, from the Kavirajamarga of 9th century, it is known that Kannada was popular from Kaveri river up to the Godavari river, an area covering large territory in modern Maharashtra.
The Rashtrakuta inscriptions call them the vanquishers of the Karnatabala, a sobriquet used to refer to the near invincibility of the Chalukyas of Badami. This however it is claimed should not be construed to mean that the Rashtrakutas themselves were not Kannadigas. Their patronage and love of the Kannada language is apparent in that most of their inscriptions within modern Karnataka are in Kannada, while their inscriptions outside of modern Karnataka tended to be in Sanskrit. An inscription in classical Kannada of King Krishna III
has also been found as far away as Jabalpur in modern Madhya Pradesh
which further supports the view of their affinity to the language.
Adikavi Pampa
, Sri Ponna
, Shivakotiacharya
and King Amoghavarsha I were among the noteworthy scholars in Kannada, the Apabhramsha
poet Pushpadanta
wrote several works and famous Sanskrit scholars such as Jinasena
and Virasena
(both of who were theologians), mathematician Mahaviracharya
and poets such as Trivikrama and Gunabhadra adorned their courts. The earliest extant
Kannada literature belongs to this time. These Rashtrakuta kings married princess from Northern and Southern India and several Rashtrakuta branches emerged in Northern India during the their imperialistic expansion in the 9th century.
The argument that the Rashtrakutas were either Marathi speaking Marathas or Telugu speaking Reddies in origin has been rejected. Reddy
's in that time period had not come into martial prominence even in the Telugu speaking regions of Andhra, being largely an agrarian society of cultivators who only much later (in the 14th century - 15th century) came to control regions in the Krishna - Rajamundry districts. The Rashtrakuta period did not produce any Marathi inscriptions or literature (with the exception of a 981 CE Shravanabelagola inscription which some historians argue was inscribed later). In addition very few literary works in Prakrit language are available from this period. Jainism which played such an important role in giving patronage to early Kannada literature did not flourish as much in the present day Maharashtra region which is why no Marathi literature emerged during this period. Hence Marathi as the language of the Rashtrakutas, it is claimed, is not an acceptable argument.
and Great Karnataka Expansion
.
The Rashtrakutas emerged before the term "Rajput" came to be used as a community. The emergence of Rajputs in Rajasthan and Gujarat coincides with the arrival of the Rashtrakutas and Chalukyas in the region.
Rashtrakuta Dynasty
The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian Subcontinent between the sixth and the 10th centuries. During this period they ruled as several closely related, but individual clans. Rastrakutas in inscriptions represented as descendants of Satyaki, a Yadava well known...
has been a controversial topic and has been debated over the past decades by historians, but it is said that the Rashtrakuat Dynasty was started when a warioir in charge named as Dantidurga defeated the Chalukya overloard. The differing opinions mostly revolve around issues such as the home of the earliest ancestors of the medieval Rashtrakutas, a possible southern migration during the early part of the first millennium and the relationship between the several Rashtrakuta dynasties that ruled small kingdoms in northern and central India and the Deccan in the 6th century - 7th century. Further, the relationship of these medieval Rashtrakutas to the most important and famous dynasty, the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta
Manyakheta
Manyakheta on the banks of Kagina River in Gulbarga district, Karnataka state was the capital of Rashtrakutas from . It is 40 km from Gulbarga city. The capital was moved from Mayurkhandi in Bidar district to Mānyakheṭa during the rule of Amoghavarsha I...
of the 8th century - 10th century time period has also been debated. Also contested is whether the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta were related by ancestry to the early Kannada, Maratha
Maratha
The Maratha are an Indian caste, predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The term Marāthā has three related usages: within the Marathi speaking region it describes the dominant Maratha caste; outside Maharashtra it can refer to the entire regional population of Marathi-speaking people;...
, Reddi, Rajput
Rajput
A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
or Punjabi
Punjabi people
The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...
communities of the Deccan and northern India. (Elliot,Numismata Orientalia,Appendix,p.149'Muliya Thimmappavva Kannada Desa Tattsavu Dharwar.1954.p.6)says that they were of Abhira stock.
While the history of the early Rashtrakutas has caused much debate, the history of the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta
Manyakheta
Manyakheta on the banks of Kagina River in Gulbarga district, Karnataka state was the capital of Rashtrakutas from . It is 40 km from Gulbarga city. The capital was moved from Mayurkhandi in Bidar district to Mānyakheṭa during the rule of Amoghavarsha I...
(in present day Gulbarga
Gulbarga
Gulbarga is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Gulbarga District. It was formerly part of Nizam's Hyderabad state...
) of the 8th-10th centuries can be accurately constructed because numerous contemporaneous inscriptions and texts refer to them. The crux of the Manyakheta empire extended from the Kaveri river
Kaveri River
The Kaveri , also spelled Cauvery in English, is a large Indian river. The origin of the river is traditionally placed at Talakaveri, Kodagu in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, flows generally south and east through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and across the southern Deccan plateau through the...
in the south to the Narmada
Narmada River
The Narmada , also called Rewa is a river in central India and the fifth largest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third largest river that completely flows within India after Ganges and Godavari...
in the north. At their peak they were the only south Indian empire that conquered regions in far northern India (Kannauj
Kannauj
Kannauj , also spelt Kanauj, is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is traditionally derived from the term Kanyakubja . Kannauj is an ancient city, in earlier times the capital...
) as well as the extreme south (Tamilakam
Ancient Tamil country
The Sangam period is the classical period in the history of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and other parts of South India, spanning about the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE...
). The Lata branch of the empire (in present day Gujarat) was an important dynasty belonging to the Manyakheta family line which later merged with the Manyakheta kingdom during the 9th century.
Sources
The study of the history of the early Rashtrakutas and the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta has been made possible by the availability of numerous inscriptions spread all over the Deccan, ancient literature in PaliPáli
- External links :* *...
, contemporaneous Kannada literature such as Kavirajamarga
Kavirajamarga
Kavirajamarga is the earliest available writing on rhetoric, poetics and grammar in the Kannada language. It was written by the famous Rashtrakuta King "Nripatunga" Amoghavarsha I and some say that it is based partly on an earlier Sanskrit writing, Kavyadarsa...
(850) and Vikramarjuna Vijaya
Vikramarjuna Vijaya
Vikramarjuna Vijaya , also known as Pampa Bharatha is a classic work of the 10th century Jain poet Pampa . It is an Kannada version of the great epic, the Mahabharata of Vyasa. Pampa choose the Arjuna, the central figure of the Pandava Clan, as the hero of his epic...
(941), Sanskrit writings by Somadeva, Rajashekara, Gunabhadra, Jinasena and others and the notes of Arab travellers of those times such as Suleiman, Ibn Haukal, Al Masudi, Al Istakhri and others. Scholars have left no topic unstudied in an effort to accurately propose the history of the Rashtrakutas. Theories about their lineage (Surya Vamsa or Chandra Vamsa), native region and ancestral home have been proposed using clues from inscriptions, royal emblems, ancient clan names such as "Rashtrika", epithets such as Ratta, Rashtrakuta, Lattalura Puravaradhiswara, names of royalty, coins and contemporaneous literature. These theories from noted scholars have resulted in claims that the Rashtrakutas were from either Rajput
Rajput
A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
, Kannadiga,Reddi, Maratha
Maratha
The Maratha are an Indian caste, predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The term Marāthā has three related usages: within the Marathi speaking region it describes the dominant Maratha caste; outside Maharashtra it can refer to the entire regional population of Marathi-speaking people;...
, or Punjabi
Punjabi people
The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...
origin.
Epithets
The appearance of the terms Rathika, Ristika (Rashtrika) or Lathika in conjunction with the terms Kambhoja and Gandhara in some Ashokan inscriptions of 2nd century BCE from Mansera and Shahbazgarhi in North Western Frontier Province (present day Pakistan), Girnar (Saurashtra) and Dhavali (KalingaOrissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
) and the use of the epithet "Ratta" in many later inscriptions has prompted a claim that the earliest Rashtrakutas were descendants of the Arattas, natives of the Punjab region from the time of Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
who later migrated south and set up kingdoms there, while another theory points more generally to north western regions of India. Based on this theory, the Arattas may have become natives of the Deccan having arrived there during the early centuries of the first millennium.
This is counter to the argument by other scholars that the term Rishtika used together with Petenika in the Ashokan inscriptions implied they were hereditary ruling clans from modern Maharashtra region and the term "Ratta" implied Maharatta ruling families from modern Maharashtra region. But this has been rejected on the basis that from ancient books such as Dipavamsha and Mahavamsha in Pali language it is known the term Maharatta and not Rashtrika has been used to signify hereditary ruling clans from modern Maharashtra region and the terms Rashtrika and Petenika appear to be two different displaced ruling tribes.
It is noted by another scholar that ruling clans called Rathis and Maharathis were in power in parts of present day Karnataka as well in the early centuries of the Christian era, which is known inscriptions from the region and further proven by the discovery of lead coins from the middle of 3rd century bearing Sadakana Kalalaya Maharathi in the heart of modern Karnataka region near Chitradurga
Chitradurga
Chitradurga is a town in the southern part of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is also the headquarters of Chitradurga district. Chitradurga was also known by the names Chitradurg, Chitrakaladurga, Chittaldurg. Chittaldrug was the name officially used by the British Govt.-Geography:Chitradurga is...
. In the face of these facts it is claimed it can no longer be maintained that the Rathi and Maharathi families were confined only to present day Maharashtra. It is claimed there is sufficient inscriptional evidence that several Maharathi families were related to Kannadiga families by marriage and they were naga
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
worshippers, a form of worship very popular in the Mysore region (modern Karnataka). Also, no evidence to confirm that these families were either Aryan or non-Aryan is available.
The epithet Ratta, it is also claimed is a Kannada word from which the word Rashtrakuta has been derived. The use of the word Rattagudlu (meaning an office) has been found in inscriptions from present day Andhra Pradesh dated prior to the 8th century indicating it was a South Indian word. From the Deoli plates and Karhad records it is argued there was a prince called Ratta and his son was called Rashtrakuta. Hence it has been argued the Rashtrakutas were of Kannada origin. It is also said the term Rashtra means "kingdom" and Kuta means "lofty" or Rashtra means province and Kuta means chieftain.
Another epithet used in inscriptions of Amoghavarsha I was Lattalura Puravaradhiswara. It is proposed that it refers to their original home Lattalur, modern day Latur in Maharashtra state, bordering Karnataka. This area it is claimed was predominantly Kannada speaking based on surviving vestiges of place names, inscriptions and cultural relics. It is explained that Latta is a Prakrit variation of Ratta and hence Rattana-ur became Lattana-ur and finally Lattalur. Another theory is that Latalurapura is modern day Ratnapur in Bilaspur district of central India.
Royal names and signatures
In linking possible connections between the medieval Rashtrakuta families to the imperial family of Manyakheta it has been pointed out that only the family members ruling from Elichpur (BerarBerar Sultanate
-Berar in Ancient History:Subah Berar and Gondwana the Vidarbha region known as Gulshan-e-Berar in medieval period since Khilji dynasty to mughal period according Aine-Akbari and Alimgeer Namah report the berar is hole Fourteen sarkar...
or modern Amravati district
Amravati district
Amravati district is a district of Maharashtra state in central India. Amravati is the administrative headquarters of the district.The district is situated between 20°32' and 21°46' north latitudes and 76°37' and 78°27' east longitudes. The district occupies an area of 12,235 km²...
, modern Maharashtra) had names that were very similar to the names of Kings of the Manyakheta dynasty. From the Tivarkhed and Multhai inscriptions it is clear that the kings of this family were Durgaraja, Govindaraja, Svamikaraja and Nannaraja. These names closely resemble the names of Manyakheta kings or their extended family, the name Govindaraja appearing multiple times among the Manyakheta line. These names also appear in the Gujarat line of Rashtrakutas whose family ties with the Manyakheta family is well known.
It has been noted that princes and princesses of the Rashtrakuta family used pure Kannada names such as Kambarasa, Asagavve, Revakka and Abbalabbe as their personal names indicating that they were native Kannadigas
Kannadigas
Kannadiga , or Kannadati is a reference to the people who natively speak the Kannada language. Kannadigas are mainly located in the state of Karnataka in India and in the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra...
. It has been pointed out that princesses of family lineage belonging to Gujarat signed their royal edicts in Kannada even in their Sanskrit inscriptions. Some examples of this are the Navsari and Baroda plates of Karka I and the Baroda plates of his son Dhruva II. It has been attested by a scholar that the Gujarat Rashtrakuta princes signed their inscriptions in the language of their native home and the race they belonged to. It is well known that the Gujarat line of Rashtrakutas were from the same family as the Manyakheta line. It is argued that if the Rashtrakutas were originally a Marathi speaking family, then the Gujarat Rashtrakutas would not have signed their inscriptions in Kannada language and that too in far away Gujarat. The theory that under the rule of the Badami
Badami
Badami , formerly known as Vatapi, is a town and headquarters of a taluk by the same name, in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka, India. It was the regal capital of the Badami Chalukyas from 540 to 757 AD. It is famous for rock cut and other structural temples...
Chalukyas of Kannada country, Kannada speaking dynasties were established in the far corners of the Chalukyan empire in Gujarat, Andhra and Berar
Berar Sultanate
-Berar in Ancient History:Subah Berar and Gondwana the Vidarbha region known as Gulshan-e-Berar in medieval period since Khilji dynasty to mughal period according Aine-Akbari and Alimgeer Namah report the berar is hole Fourteen sarkar...
(present day Vidharba region in modern Maharashtra) and hence the ancestors of King Dantidurga
Dantidurga
Dantidurga , also known as Dantivarman or Dantidurga II was the founder of the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta. His capital was based in Gulbarga region of Karnataka...
, the founder of the Manyakheta empire were Kannadigas. It is further claimed there is proof that in the locality where Dantidurga lived Kannada was the spoken language.
Emblems
Several Rashtrakuta families ruled India during the 6th century - 7th century period. Scholars have tried to understand their relationship with the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta by a comparative study of the emblems.The only Rashtrakuta family whose royal emblem is similar to that of the rulers of Manyakheta, the golden eagle or Garuda
Garuda
The Garuda is a large mythical bird or bird-like creature that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology.From an Indian perspective, Garuda is the Hindu name for the constellation Aquila and...
lanchhana (emblem) is that of the family that ruled from Amravathi district of modern Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
. It has been theorised that this line may possibly have been ancestors of the Manyakheta kings. Their inscriptions (Tivarkhed and Multhai) were issued from Achalapura (modern Elichpur) which may have been their capital. Another Rashtrakuta family ruling from Manapur in Malwa region with its founder King Abhimanyu had the emblem of a lion. This makes it improbable that they were the ancestors of the Manyakheta family.
While the Garuda is normally indicative Vaishnavite leanings, it has to be observed here that earlier coins belonging to King Krishna I
Krishna I
Krishna I , an uncle of Dantidurga, took charge of the growing Rashtrakuta Empire by defeating the last Badami Chalukya ruler Kirtivarman II in 757. This is known from the copper plate grant of Emperor Govinda III of 807 and a copper plate grant of the Gujarat Rashtrakuta Emperor Karka from Baroda...
's period use the legend Parama Maheshwara, which in turn indicate staunch Shaivite leanings. This change in symbology has been used to theorise that the Rashtrakutas may have originally been Shaivites and embraced Vaishnavism later.
Vamsha(genealogy)
With regards to their vamsha (whether they belonged to Surya Vamsha (solar lineage) or Chandra Vamsha (lunar lineage), Rashtrakuta inscriptions remained silent on the issue, until about 860. Some 75 inscriptions have been found thereafter in the Deccan and Gujarat which speak about their vamsha. Of these, only 8 lay claim that they belonged to the Yadava line. While one inscription of 860 claims that King DantidurgaDantidurga
Dantidurga , also known as Dantivarman or Dantidurga II was the founder of the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta. His capital was based in Gulbarga region of Karnataka...
was born to the Yadava Satyaki, 1800 coins of King Krishna I (772), his successor calls him Parama Mahesvara indicating his solar lineage origin and Shaiva faith. An inscription of King Govinda III
Govinda III
Govinda III was a famous Rashtrakuta ruler who succeeded his illustrious father Dhruva Dharavarsha. He was militarily the most successful emperor of the dynasty with successful conquests from Cape Comorin in the south to Kannauj in the north, from Banaras in the east to Broach in the west...
(808) mentions "by the birth of this virtuous king, the Rashtrakuta dynasty became invincible just as the Yadava dynasty by the birth of Lord Krishna". This is considered only a comparative statement. Only a few records attest to a possible Yadava connection and even the descendants of the Rashtrakutas such as the Gahadavalas of Kanauj, Rathors of Rajasthan claim to be from Surya Vamsha (solar lineage), a sure sign the Rashtrakutas belonged to the Surya Vamsha. The opinion that the Rashtrakutas did not belong to the Yadava line is supported by another scholar as well.
Language
While the linguistic leanings of the early Rashtrakutas has caused considerable debate, the history and language of the Rashtrakutas of ManyakhetaManyakheta
Manyakheta on the banks of Kagina River in Gulbarga district, Karnataka state was the capital of Rashtrakutas from . It is 40 km from Gulbarga city. The capital was moved from Mayurkhandi in Bidar district to Mānyakheṭa during the rule of Amoghavarsha I...
has been free of such confusion. It is clear from inscriptions, coinage and prolific contemporaneous literature that the court of these Rashtrakutas was multi-lingual, used Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and Kannada as their administrative languages and encouraged literature in Sanskrit and Kannada.Kamath (2001), p73 However this period was the very end of the classical era of literary Sanskrit and Prakrit. As such, from the Kavirajamarga of 9th century, it is known that Kannada was popular from Kaveri river up to the Godavari river, an area covering large territory in modern Maharashtra.
The Rashtrakuta inscriptions call them the vanquishers of the Karnatabala, a sobriquet used to refer to the near invincibility of the Chalukyas of Badami. This however it is claimed should not be construed to mean that the Rashtrakutas themselves were not Kannadigas. Their patronage and love of the Kannada language is apparent in that most of their inscriptions within modern Karnataka are in Kannada, while their inscriptions outside of modern Karnataka tended to be in Sanskrit. An inscription in classical Kannada of King Krishna III
Krishna III
Krishna III, whose Kannada name was Kannara , was the last great warrior and able monarch of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty of Manyakheta. He was a shrewd administrator and skillful military campaigner. He waged many wars to bring back the glory of the Rashtrakutas and played an important role in...
has also been found as far away as Jabalpur in modern Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
which further supports the view of their affinity to the language.
Adikavi Pampa
Adikavi Pampa
Pampa , called by the honorific Ādikavi is one of the greatest Kannada poets of all time.He is very famous even today for his philosophical beliefs...
, Sri Ponna
Sri Ponna
Sri Ponna was a Kannada poet in the court of Rashtrakuta Dynasty king Krishna III . The emperor honoured Ponna with the title "emperor among poets" for his domination of the Kannada literary circles of the time, and the title "imperial poet of two languages" for his command over Sanskrit as well...
, Shivakotiacharya
Shivakotiacharya
Shivakotiacharya , a writer of the 9th-10th century, is considered the author of didactic Kannada language Jain text Vaddaradhane . A prose narrative written in pre-Old-Kannada , Vaddaradhane is considered the earliest extant work in the prose genre in the Kannada language...
and King Amoghavarsha I were among the noteworthy scholars in Kannada, the Apabhramsha
Apabhramsha
Apabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...
poet Pushpadanta
Pushpadanta
In Jainism, Puṣpadanta In Jainism, Puṣpadanta In Jainism, Puṣpadanta . According to Jain beliefs, he became a siddha and an arihant, a liberated soul which has destroyed all of its karma....
wrote several works and famous Sanskrit scholars such as Jinasena
Jinasena
Jinasena is the name of several famous Jain Acharyas of the Digambar tradition.* The author of Harivamsha Purana in the 8th century. He belonged to the Punnata branch of Jain monks....
and Virasena
Virasena
Āchārya Virasena was an 8th century Indian mathematician and Jain philosopher and scholar. He was a student of the Jain sage Elāchārya. He is also known to be a famous orator and an accomplished poet. His most reputed work is the Jain treatise Dhavala. Late Dr. Hiralal Jain places the completion of...
(both of who were theologians), mathematician Mahaviracharya
Mahavira (mathematician)
Mahavira was a 9th-century Indian Jain mathematician from Gulbarga who asserted that the square root of a negative number did not exist. He gave the sum of a series whose terms are squares of an arithmetical progression and empirical rules for area and perimeter of an ellipse. He was patronised by...
and poets such as Trivikrama and Gunabhadra adorned their courts. The earliest extant
Extant literature
Extant literature refers to texts that have survived from the past to the present time. Extant literature can be divided into extant original manuscripts, copies of original manuscripts, quotations and paraphrases of passages of non-extant texts contained in other works, translations of non-extant...
Kannada literature belongs to this time. These Rashtrakuta kings married princess from Northern and Southern India and several Rashtrakuta branches emerged in Northern India during the their imperialistic expansion in the 9th century.
The argument that the Rashtrakutas were either Marathi speaking Marathas or Telugu speaking Reddies in origin has been rejected. Reddy
Reddy
Reddy is a social group or caste of India, predominantly inhabiting Andhra Pradesh. They are enlisted as a forward caste by the government. Traditionally, they are a high-caste community of nobility, warriors and cultivators. According to academics, they were a warrior caste in the remote past and...
's in that time period had not come into martial prominence even in the Telugu speaking regions of Andhra, being largely an agrarian society of cultivators who only much later (in the 14th century - 15th century) came to control regions in the Krishna - Rajamundry districts. The Rashtrakuta period did not produce any Marathi inscriptions or literature (with the exception of a 981 CE Shravanabelagola inscription which some historians argue was inscribed later). In addition very few literary works in Prakrit language are available from this period. Jainism which played such an important role in giving patronage to early Kannada literature did not flourish as much in the present day Maharashtra region which is why no Marathi literature emerged during this period. Hence Marathi as the language of the Rashtrakutas, it is claimed, is not an acceptable argument.
Rashtrakutas and Rajputs
See detailed articles Origin of RajputsOrigin of Rajputs
The Rajputs are a community of the Indian subcontinent. Rajputs are the descendents of warriors of the Kshatriya subdivision of Indian society who claim descent through one of three dynasties: Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi, and Agnivanshi.Chandravanshi Rajputs claim descent from Chandra...
and Great Karnataka Expansion
The great Karnataka Expansion
The migrations of people and influences to the North from Karnataka during 10-12th century period is well attested by the sources but has not yet been studied carefully.-Emergence of North Indian Dynasties:...
.
The Rashtrakutas emerged before the term "Rajput" came to be used as a community. The emergence of Rajputs in Rajasthan and Gujarat coincides with the arrival of the Rashtrakutas and Chalukyas in the region.