The Rashtrakutas and their Times c10.8

c10.8

(3) This inference is based upon the fact that all the records of the Gujrat Rāṣṭrakūṭa branch, which mention the restoration of Amoghavarsha give its credit to Karka. The recently published Sanjān plates of Amoghavarsha I, however, tell us that it was with the help of Pātālamalla that the boy emperor could regain the throne. But the Surat plates of Karka, which I am editing, give the credit of the restoration to Karka himself. These plates were issued in May 821 A.D. and are thus almost a contemporary document; and their testimony can hardly be brushed aside. The discrepancy between these two records can be explained in two ways: (1) Pātālamalla may have been another relative or feudatory of Amoghavarsha, who may have co-operated with Karka in overthrowing the confederacy against the boy-emperor. The Gujrat branch records would naturally ignore him and give the entire credit to Karka who belonged to it. (2) Or, Pātālamalla may be the same as Karka, the former being an epithet of the latter. Pātālamalla is obviously a *biruda* rather than a proper name; Bhagwānlal Indraji avers that it was a *biruda* of Karka, but cites no authority for the statement (B. G., I. i., p. 124). It is not improbable that he made that statement on the authority of some unpublished Rāṣṭrakūṭa record, like the Baroda grant of Dhruva II to which he refers, but which is yet to see the light of the day. But so far, no published records including the Surat plates of Karka himself, which I am editing for the Epigraphia Indica, assigns this *biruda* to him. I believe that it may eventually be found out that Pātālamalla was a *biruda* of Karka, as Bhagwānlal had asserted. Were he really a different relative or feudatory of Amoghavarsha, it is difficult to imagine why the to be carried on without any hitch; for the Naosari plates of Karka Suvarṇavarsha, (4) which were issued in 816 A.D., mention Amoghavarsha as the ruling emperor and are altogether silent about the revolt and the part which their donor had played in quelling it.