The Rashtrakutas and their Times c7.s1.78

c7.s1.78

Burnell was inclined to hold that the Malkhed Rāṣṭrakūṭas were Telgus and were of the same stock as the Reddies of the Andhra land. (33) This view, however, does not bear close scrutiny. The Reddies are at present scattered even over Tamil country and north-eastern portions of Mysore State; but their original home and present stronghold is the Andhra country. The Reddies of Mysore are undoubtedly of Telgu origin, (34) and those in Tamil districts still speak a broken Telgu dialect, which clearly proves their northern origin. If we suppose that the Rāṣṭrakūṭas were the ancestors of the modern Reddies, their original home will have to be located somewhere in the Krishna-Godavari doab. In that case it is reasonable to expect that they would have first come into prominence in that locality. As it is, not only did the Rāṣṭrakūṭa expansion not begin from the Telgu-speaking area, but most of it was never included in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa dominions. The Chālukya rulers overthrown by them were those of the main and the Gujrat lines. The Vengi kings continued to defy them down to their fall. The mother-tongue of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas was Canarese and not Telgu, as will be presently shown. The Reddies were a class of traders and cultivators and they are not known to have distinguished themselves by military exploits in any period of ancient Indian history. It is but once that they are known to have founded a kingdom, and that was after the fall of the Gaṇapatis of Warangal, when for about a century, c. 1350-1450 A.D., they were holding portions of Kṛṣṇā and Rājmahendri districts.³⁵ The change of Rāṣṭra into Raḍḍa or Reddies is also not possible in the Telgu dialect, though it can take place in the Tamil one.³⁵ Under these circumstances it is not possible to identify the Rāṣṭrakūṭas with the ancestors of modern Reddies.