The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c8.s12.2

v1.c8.s12.2

It has been recently argued with great ingenuity and plausibility that the Vākāṭaka empire was supplanted not by the Chālukya empire but by an early Rāshṭrakūṭa empire, which continued to include practically the whole of the Deccan during the sixth century A.D.¹ The Rāshṭrakūṭa king Mānamātra or Mānaṅka laid the foundation of this empire in *c.* A.D. 475 by conquering Aṅga, Aśmaka, and Vidarbha, i.e. Bihar, the southern Madhya Pradesha, and Berar. His home was in the Chhattisgarh division of the Madhya Pradesha and his capital Śarabhapura. This Rāshṭrakūṭa kingdom expanded farther during the reign of Sudevarāja, the son of Mānamātra, but was eventually divided into three portions over which his three sons Jayarāja, Bhavishya, and Avidheya ruled separately. The kingdom of the first was in Chhattisgarh, that of the second in Berar and the western Madhya Pradesha, and that of the third in central and southern Mahārāshṭra. These three kingdoms formed a kind of Rāshṭrakūṭa confederation, which governed the whole of Mahārāshṭra down to the beginning of the sixth century, when they were overthrown by the Chālukya king Pulakeśin II.