History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c15.s1.3

v1.c15.s1.3

We surmise that when the Āndhrabhritya Satavahana rule came to end about 200 A. D. the early Pallavas were viceroys in the southern Deccan and as usual asserted themselves and became independent. The same surmise is given by Dubreuil in his valuable brochure “The Pallavas” He says “The Pallavas succeeded the Āndhras. Their plates mentioned the province of Sātāhani Raṭṭha a portion of the Bellary district. Thus the Pallava empire extended along the Coromandel coast upto the Krishna and westward in the Deccan upto the banks of the Tunga-bhadrā” (p. 13). It may be added that the mention of the Rāṣṭra or Raṭṭha and Ahāra as the name of a district is indeed the Mahārāṣṭra fashion. The Mahārāṣṭras usually adopted the name Rāṣṭra as a designation for a province or district. Even in Aśoka’s edicts they are called the Rāṣṭrikas, or the Raṭṭhas. Then again the name of Bappa is peculiarly Aryan and Mahārāṣṭriya. It is found in one of these Prakrit grants of the early Pallavas.