The Rashtrakutas and their Times c7.s1.103

c7.s1.103

There is also evidence available to show that the home of the house of Dantidurga was in a Canarese-speaking locality. A number of Rāṣṭrakūṭa records describe the rulers by the epithet *Laṭṭalūrapuravarādhīśa* 'lord of Laṭṭalūra, the best of towns.'⁴⁹ This epithet is changed into *Laṭṭalūrapuravinirgata* 'emigrants from Laṭṭalūra, the best of towns' in some of the records of the Raṭṭas of Saundatti.⁵⁰ Laṭṭalūra, to which the Rāṣṭrakūṭas belonged, need not have been necessarily included within the jurisdiction of Nannarāja and his ancestors. Maṇalera, a general of Kṛṣṇa III, has been described as *Valabhipuravarādhis'a*, 'lord of Valabhi, the best of towns' at a time when it is clear that he had no control over that city.⁵¹ The Kalachurya kings of Kalyāni, the Gutta princes of Guttavolal, and the Yādava rulers of Devagiri called themselves lords of Kālañjara, Ujjayinī, and Dvārakā respectively,—places which were never included in their dominions. The identification of Laṭṭalūra is not yet definitely certain. Fleet had once suggested that Laṭṭalūra may be Ratanpur in Vilaspur District of the Central Provinces, pointing out how most of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa families belonged to Central India. But later on he himself abandoned this theory, when it was found from a 12th century inscription from Ratanpur itself, that the name of the place was originally Ratnapura and not Laṭṭanūrapura. His later view that Laṭṭalūra may be Lāṭūr in Bedar District of Hydrabad State seems to be hitting the truth.⁵² Phonetically the change of Laṭṭalūra into Lāṭūr is quite natural. The second *la* in Laṭṭalūra, being dropped by haplology, the original form will assume the garb of Laṭṭaūra in Prakrit; this form will later change into Lāṭūra, the loss of the double consonant *ṭṭa* being compensated by the doubling of the preceding vowel.