History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.s1.12

v1.c8.s1.12

We are not concerned here with the political history of Mahārāshtra which we will detail in the next book but we may advert to it in a general way in order to show how this tradition of the Bhojas and Rattas being descended from Aryans and Aryans of the lunar race continued to be entertained among the people down to the 7th century A.D. In the time of Agnimitra (2nd Century B.C.) Vidarbha was ruled by Mādhava Sena and Yajna Sena names clearly Aryan and Kshatriya. From the 2nd century B. C. to the 3rd century A. D. Mahārāshtra was ruled by the Sātavahanas who called themselves Āndhrabhrityas but the people were called Rattas and Maharāthīs as inscriptions of their time testify. After these Āndhrabhrityas who themselves were Aryo-Dravidians as we shall show hereafter, the Rāshtrikas again asserted their independence and it seems certain that from the 3rd century A. D. down to the 6th Rāshtrakūta kings ruled in the Deccan, for the Chālukyas in their inscriptions say that they established their power by conquering a Rāshṭrakūṭa. Now the Rāshṭrakūṭas are in inscriptions represented as descendants of Sātyaki, a Yadava well-known in the Purāṇas, while the Jādhavas or Yādavas represent themselves as descendants of Srīkṛishṇa himself. Thus the two leading Maratha families who ruled Mahārāshtra entertained the tradition that they were Yādavas. Hence it may be said that the Marathas by long tradition believed themselves to be Aryans by descent.