The Rashtrakutas and their Times c7.s1.108

c7.s1.108

Since there is no phonetic difficulty, there is nothing to stand against the identification of Laṭṭalūra with Lāṭūr. As a matter of fact all the known facts of history can be explained only on this hypothesis. It has been shown already that the Raṭhis and the Mahāraṭhis were spread over portions of Karṇāṭak as well, in the early centuries of the Christian era. So there may, quite possibly, have been a Raṭhi family holding local sway at Lāṭūr, which is almost due east of Poona and south of Berar. This family may have later migrated to Elichpur or some other place nearby in Berar, where Nannarāja was ruling in 631-2 A.D. Elichpur is only about 150 miles north of Lāṭūr, and the emigration is quite possible. And by assuming that Dantidurga's ancestors in Berar were immigrants from Lāṭūr, we can well understand how they were using Canarese language and proto-Canarese script. Lāṭūr is now a Canarese-speaking town and such was also the case during our period; for we learn from the Kavirājamārga, which was composed in the 9th century A.D., that Canarese was then spoken between the Godāvari and the Kāverī.⁵³ The immigrant rulers naturally stuck to their language and script during their stay in Berar. When we remember how the Maratha families ruling in Baroda, Indore, and Gwallior still use their mother tongue and script in personal matters, there is nothing impossible in the supposition that the Canarese Rāṣṭrakūṭa family, ruling in Berar, which was and is just contiguous to Canarese-speaking area, preserved its mother tongue and script.