History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.s1.13

v1.c8.s1.13

Sir R. G. Bhandarkar in his history of the Deccan says the same thing. "We have seen from cave inscriptions," says he, "that from remote times, tribes of Kshatriyas calling themselves Bhojas and Rāshṭrikas or Rattis were predominent in the country. In the northern part of the Deccan they called themselves Mahārathis. But in other parts the name was Rattis, since we know that many modern chiefs of the Southern Maratha Country call themselves Raṭṭis. Some of these tribes must have called themselves, Rāshṭrakūṭa. The Rāshṭrakūṭa family was in all likelihood the main branch of the Kshatriyas who gave their name to the country and who were found in it even in the time of Aśoka (P. 62.) "The Rāshṭrakūṭas," Sir Bhandarkar goes on to add "the real native rulers of the country were sometimes eclipsed by enterprizing princes of foreign origin such as the Sātavāhanas and the Chālukyas." We have already adverted to the Sātavāhanas and they were from Andhra and therefore foreign to Mahārāshtra, but they were Aryo-Dravidians as we shall show and we may now on to see who the Chālukyas were. These too appear of foreign origin, but they were Aryans and Sir R. Bhandarkar by foreign merely means foreign to Mahārāshtra.