Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c18.2

c18.2

THE Râshtrakûṭas are represented to have belonged to the race of Yadu.¹ According to the Wardhâ plates they were members of the Sâtyaki branch of the race, and were the direct descendants of a prince of the name of Raṭṭa. He had a son of the name of Râshṭrakûṭa after whom the family was so called. These are clearly imaginary persons, and as remarked before, the Râshṭrakûṭa family was in all likelihood the main branch of the race of Kshatriyas named Raṭṭhas who gave their name to the country of Mahârâshṭra, and were found in it even in the times of Aśoka the Maurya. The Râshṭrakûṭas were the real native rulers of the country and were sometimes eclipsed by enterprising princes of foreign origin, such as the Sâtavâhanas and the Châlukyas who established themselves in the Dekkan and exercised supreme sovereignty, but were never extirpated. The earliest prince of the dynasty mentioned in the grants hitherto discovered is Govinda I. But in an inscription in the rock-cut temple of the Daśâvatâras at Elurâ the names of two earlier ones, Dantivarman and Indrarâja, occur.² The latter was Govinda's father and the former his grandfather. Govinda I. was probably the prince of that name who in Ravikîrti's inscription at Aihole is spoken of as having attacked the Châlukya king Pulakesi II and to have afterwards become his ally.