The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c8.s12.8

v1.c8.s12.8

¹ It is argued that Āppāyika and Govinda, who attacked Pulakeśin II in the Bhīmā valley, were Rāṣṭrakūṭa rulers, and thus it has been attempted to prove that the Rāṣṭrakūṭa empire existed at the beginning of the sixth century A.D. It must therefore be pointed out that these rulers are not described as Rāṣṭrakūṭas in the Aihole eulogy, and that there is no other evidence to show that they bore that epithet. And even if we concede that they were Rāṣṭrakūṭas, the eulogy makes it absolutely clear that they were ruling over a petty principality in the Bhīmā valley and not over a vast empire embracing the whole of the Deccan. The defeat by the Cālukya king Jayasiṁha, of a Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Indra, son of Kṛṣṇa, is mentioned for the first time in the records of the later Cālukyas composed more than five centuries after the alleged event. If this defeat really took place, why should not a single record of