The Rashtrakutas and their Times c7.s1.121

c7.s1.121

Whether the Rāṣṭrakūṭas of Malkhed were originally local rulers or district officers or mere landlords is difficult to judge. Many of the Raṭhis of the 3rd century B.C. must have been reduced to the position of district governors at the rise of the Andhra empire. Some of them must have again become petty local rulers with the fall of that empire. Their status in many cases must have been again reduced by the early Cālukyas, when they rose to power. With reference to the ancestors of Dantidurga we notice that Yudhāṣura Nannarāja was the first to claim the Pañcamahāś’bdas. His predecessors, therefore, may have been either local officers or mere landlords. They rose to power first under Nannarāja, and it is possible that his descendants may have continued to enjoy the feudatory status, won for the family by Nannarāja.