short notes on Rashtrakuttas
Answers
This period, between the eighth and the 10th centuries, saw a tripartite struggle for the resources of the rich Gangetic plains, each of these three empires annexing the seat of power at Kannauj for short periods of time. At their peak the Rashtrakutas of Manyakhetaruled a vast empire stretching from the Ganges River and Yamuna River doab in the north to Cape Comorin in the south, a fruitful time of political expansion, architectural achievements and famous literary contributions. The early kings of this dynasty were influenced by Hinduism and the later kings by Jainism.
During their rule, Jain mathematicians and scholars contributed important works in Kannada and Sanskrit. Amoghavarsha I, the most famous king of this dynasty wrote Kavirajamarga, a landmark literary work in the Kannada language. Architecture reached a milestone in the Dravidian style, the finest example of which is seen in the Kailasanath Temple at Ellora in modern Maharashtra. Other important contributions are the Kashivishvanatha temple and the Jain Narayana temple at Pattadakal in modern Karnataka, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Elichpur clan was a feudatory of the Badami Chalukyas, and during the rule of Dantidurga, it overthrew Chalukya Kirtivarman II and went on to build an empire with the Gulbarga region in modern Karnataka as its base. This clan came to be known as the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta, rising to power in South India in 753. At the same time the Pala dynasty of Bengal and the Prathihara dynasty of Malwa were gaining force in eastern and northwestern India respectively. An Arabic text, Silsilat al-Tawarikh (851), called the Rashtrakutas one of the four principal empires of the world.[2]
HOPE IT HELPS YA !!
Rashtrakuta means chief of a rashtra, that is, a division or a kingdom, and the term is found in the inscriptions of several dynasties after the fourth century AD indicating the designation of a class of regional officials under the control of a central government. It is inferred that the line of kings who bore the dynastic name of Rashtrakutas belonged to this class of officials. Some scholars are of the view that the Rathikas of Asokan epigraphs are the ancestors of the Rashtrakutas, but the Rathikas during the Mauryan times were a tribe and nothing has been found connecting them to the Rashtrakutas emerging after nearly eight centuries. Fleet discounts the possibility of any connection of the Rashtrakutas with the Kannada-Telugu caste name, Reddi or Raddi, because in Central India and the northern region of Maharashtra, the original home of the Rashtrakutas, people belonging to the Reddi castes are not generally found at present.
Kannada was, however, the mother tongue of the Rashtrakutas and their inscriptions are in this language. In state documents, however, Sanskrit was used widely. A title commonly used by the princes of the main Rashtrakuta dynasty as also of the collateral families gives an idea of their place of origin. The title is Lattatura Puravaresvara, meaning 'the lord of the city of Lattatura', modern Latur in Bidar district.
The Rashtrakutas claimed descent from the varnsa (lineage) of Yadu (Sanjan copper plates). Grants issued in the reign of Govinda III stated that just as the Yadava varnsa became invincible after the birth of Lord Krishna, so did the dynasty of the Rashtrakutas after the birth of Govinda III. Six or seven decades later, this idea led to the claim of descent from the Satyaki branch of the Yaduvamsa and from an ancestor named Ratta descending from Tunga or a line of Tunga. As most of their contemporary royal dynasties in the South were claiming Puranic ancestry at the time, no significance should be attached to the names the Rashtrakutas had given for their ancestry.
Mananka is the earliest known founder of the ruling family of the Rashtrakuta, and another such family was ruling in Betul (in Madhya Pradesh). The Naravana plates (AD 743) of the Chalukya, Vikramaditya II of Badami, states that the Rashtrakuta Govindaraja, son of Sivaraja, was a vijnapati (petitioner) meaning that the Rashtrakutas were feudatories of the Chalukyas. Then there is the Autroli-Chharoli plate with a Garuda seal (AD 757) belonging to a subsidiary clan of the main Rashtrakutas and mentioning four generations: Karka I, Dhruva, Govinda
and Karka II of Lata. This family was ruling in Lata, and their relationship with the main Rashtrakutas ruling in Malkhed is not known. As, however, Karka II (who issued the Autroli-Chharoli grant) was a contemporary of Dantidurga, Nilakantha Sastri says that Karka 1 could also be the grandfather of Dantidurga (the founder of the Malkhed Rashtrakutas).