The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.186

c21.186

We come across no surnames of Brahmana donees in the inscriptions of our period. Only their personal names and the names of their fathers and gotras are given. The custom of surnames, however, soon came in vogue after our period: for in the Chikka Bagewadi(148) and Bendegiri(149) inscriptions of the Yādava king Kṛṣṇa, we find surnames making their appearance. It is interesting to note that many of the surnames given in these records survive in the Deccan to the present day, e. g. Pāṭhaka, Dvivedi, Upādhyāya, Dikshita, Paṇḍita, Paṭṭavardhana, and Ghalisāsa. Vedārthada, Prasannasarasvatī, and Prauḍhasarasvatī are some of the surnames that have not survived in the struggle for existence. The reason seems to have been that they were too cumbrous for daily use. It will be easily perceived that most of the surnames above mentioned are really titles, descriptive of the literary achievements of the various individuals. Later on they crystallised into hereditary surnames.