The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c10.8

v1.c10.8

During the sixth and the seventh centuries we come across several such feudatory families ruling in the different parts of the Deccan. Abhimanyu of Mānyapura in the Hoshangābād District was one such ruler; we have seen that he was ruling in the first half of the sixth century A.D. and that he had then recently assumed the surname of Rāṣṭrakūṭa. About the subsequent fortunes of his family history at present knows nothing. In the heart of the kingdom of the Cālukyas of Bādāmi there existed at this time certain feudatory Rāṣṭrakūṭa families. The Sendraka family of the southern Marāṭhā country, which was closely related to the Cālukyas, was on terms of the closest friendship with a Rāṣṭrakūṭa family ruling in its neighbourhood about the middle of the seventh century A.D.¹ The Rāṣṭrakūṭas who later ousted the Chālukyas were not, however, connected with either of these families. They originally belonged to Laṭṭalūra, modern Lātūr, a small town in the Osmanābād District of Hyderabad State. Laṭṭalūra was situated in the Canarese-speaking area and Canarese was the mother tongue of this family. Durggarāja, Govindarāja, and Svāmikarāja, who flourished from *c.* A.D. 570 to 630, were mere district officers under the early Chālukyas of Bādāmi. Nannarāja, the son of Svāmikarāja, was an able and ambitious person. He migrated to Berar, distinguished himself on the battlefield, and won feudatory status for his family in *c.* A.D. 640, probably from Pulakeśin II. He carved out for himself a small principality in Berar, of which Achalapura, the modern Elichpur, was most probably the capital. Elichpur is only 225 miles from Lātūr, the original home of the family. In the course of Indian history we often find ambitious soldiers leaving their homes and migrating to far-off provinces to seek their fortunes. Scions of the early Chālukya families left Bādāmi and went to far-off Gujarāt and Āndhradeśa in order to found new ruling families. The Senas left Karṇātak and went to distant Bengal and founded a dynasty there. Several Marāṭhā families left their homes in Mahārāṣṭra and went to distant Tanjore, Indore, and Gwalior, where they were able to carve out new kingdoms. We need not then be surprised to find Nannarāja leaving his home in the northern Karṇātak when an opportunity occurred of founding a small principality in Berar.