The Rashtrakutas and their Times c8.s1.26

c8.s1.26

It was only for the sake of convenience that the house of Dantidurga was designated as the Malkhed Rāṣṭrakūṭa house in the present and the preceding chapter. Malkhed became the capital in the time of Amoghavarsha I, and the pre-Malkhed capital of the house cannot yet be determined with certainty. On the strength of a verse in the Kathākosha, it was once suggested that Malkhed was the capital of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas from the beginning, since the verse in question mentions Śubhatuṅga, which was one of the *birudas* of Kṛṣṇa I, as ruling at Malkhed. This view, however, does not seem to be correct, since Śubhatuṅga is known to have been a *biruda* of Kṛṣṇa II as well. Besides a verse in the Karda plates of Karka II distinctly states that Amoghavarṣa I built Mānyakheṭa, which could put to shame even the capital of gods. ⁽⁵³⁾ It would, therefore, seem that before the time of Amoghavarṣa I some other city than Malkhed was the capital of the empire, especially as no record earlier than his time refers to Malkhed as capital. It has been suggested that Mayūrakhiṇḍi or Morkhind, a fort in the district of Nasik, may have been the pre-Malkhed capital, since Wani-Dindori, Radhanpur and Kadba plates of Govinda III were issued from that place. But the expression used in these records is *Mayūrakhiṇḍīsamāvāsitena mayā* and not *Mayūrakhiṇḍīvāstav-yena mayā*. It is, therefore, quite possible that at the time of the issue of these records Govinda III may have temporarily encamped in this fort. In the Wani-Dindori plates the village granted is described as included in Vaṭanagara *viṣaya* of Nāsika *deś'a*. If Morkhinda of Nasik district were really the capital at this period, it is strange that the *viṣaya* or *deś'a* in which it was situated should not have been designated after it. It would, therefore, appear that Mayūrakhiṇḍī was only a military station and not a capital. This same circumstance would go against the view that Nasik was the capital. The Dhulia ⁽⁵⁴⁾ and Pimperi ⁽⁵⁵⁾ plates besides show that Nasik was the seat of a viceroy, and not of the central Government, in the 8th century. Lāṭūra was the original home of the family, from which it had migrated in Berar a few centuries earlier; and it was also included in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa kingdom in the reign of Kṛṣṇa I. But there is no evidence to show that the earlier rulers of the family had made their ancestral home once more their capital. Paithan also was not the capital as the Paithan plates of Govinda III would show. As it is, we have to confess that the early capital of the house cannot be determined with certainty. It is, however, not improbable that Elichpur in Berar, where the ancestors of Dantidurga were ruling before the rise of the house, may have continued to be the capital, till it was changed to Malkhed. Cousens has recently suggested ⁵⁶ that the Rāṣṭrakūṭa capital may have been located somewhere in the vicinity of the Elora caves in the time of Dantidurga. He thinks that the place called as 'Sooloobunjun' in the Indian atlas sheets, which is just above the plateau near the Elora caves, may have been the actual locality of the capital, since what look like the remains of a town and a very large tank are still to be seen in the place. This view is a probable one, but the identification of the pre-Malkhed capital with Sooloobunjun can be accepted as proved only when more substantial evidence can be adduced. As it is, we have to admit that we have no definite knowledge as to the precise site of the capital before it was shifted to Malkhed.