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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
in the same verse in the Bêhaṭṭi plates of A.D. 1253, which contain another Dêvagiri-Yâdava
record.[1]
That the family-name of the princes of Saundatti, who ruled the Kûṇḍi three-thousand
province, was Raṭṭa, not Râshṭrakûṭa, is unmistakable, And it is also quite plain that, while
Râshṭrakûṭa was the formal appellation which it was customary to apply to the kings of
Mâlkhêḍ in ornate language, the real practical form of their family-name was Raṭṭa.
This is made clear, in one way, by the fact that Raṭṭa is the name that was used in forming
those birudas, or secondary appellations of the kings, of which the family-name was a component, and of which we have at present instances dating from A.D. 915 and onwards ; namely,
Raṭṭakandarpa in the cases of Indra III., Gôvinda IV., Khoṭṭiga, and Indra IV., and Raṭṭavidyâdhara in the case of Gôvinda IV. But it is made clear in other ways also. In the records
of the Mâlkhêḍ family, except in the case of the Kaḍaba plates which are not of unquestionable
authenticity, the appellation Râshṭrakûṭa is found only in Sanskṛit verses, in those parts of the
records which were introductory to the passages containing the practical details of the records,
and were devoted to exhibiting the pedigree, reciting the achievements, and generally magnifying
the importance of the kings, in the principal literary language of the time. And even in the
record put forward in the Kaḍaba plates, where the appellation occurs in prose, the passage is in
ornate prose of an elaborate and stilted kind, or, as Dr. Lüders has styled it, in “ exceedingly
rich and flowery language.”[2]
The name Raṭṭa appears first in the Sirûr and Nîlgund inscriptions of A.D. 866. And in them it is presented, not in a Sanskṛit verse, but in the Kanarese
prose praśasti which introduces the practical details of the records. At about that time, there
arose a practice of presenting compositions, which did not even include excerpts from the early
standard drafts such as we have in the case of verses 1 and 2 in the Sirûr record and verses 2
and 3 in the Nîlgund record, but which departed altogether from the early standard drafts, and
were also liable to be independent even of each other. The compares of those later records
indulged in various liberties, which had not been allowed to the composers of the earlier records.
And, in the drafts presented in the Cambay plates of A.D. 930 and the Sâṅglî plates of A.D.
933 and the Kharḍa plates of A.D. 972, the real name of the family, in either form, was
actually suppressed altogether, and the members of the dynasty were simply allotted, in connection
with their then recently elaborated Purâṇic pedigree, to “ the race of the Yadus” or “ the
lineage of Yadu.”[3] It was only in those later compositions that the habit crept in, of using the
name Raṭṭa in Sanskṛit verses. And, even then, a kind of apology was made for using the
more practical form of the name in the more ornate parts of the records. That the biruda
Raṭṭakandarpa, in the case of Indra III., should be used in a Sanskṛit verse, in the Bagumrâ
records of A.D. 915, in that practical form and without being metamorphosed into Râshṭrakûṭakandarpa, is natural enough. But it is found rather far on in the record. And the composer
of the draft presented in those two sets of plates was careful to introduce the dynasty by its more
stately appellation of “ the family of the Râshṭrakûṭas,” before he proceeded to speak of “ the
kingdom or sovereignty of the Raṭṭas ” and to bring the biruda Raṭṭakandarpa into one of his
verses. So, also, the draft presented in the Dêôlî plates of A.D. 940 and the Karhâḍ plates
of A.D. 959 introduces the dynasty as “ the race of the Râshṭrakûṭas,” before it, again, speaks of
“ the kingdom or sovereignty of the Raṭṭas.” And these two drafts, presented to us first in
records of A.D. 915 and 940, emphasise the point that Raṭṭa was the real and practical
form, and Râshṭrakûṭa was the ornamental or stately form, of the family-name. Such
are the facts. But the Raṭṭas of Mâlkhêḍ have come to be familiarly known as the Râshṭrakûṭas of Mâlkhêḍ, because that form only of their name is presented at all prominently in
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[1] Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XII. p. 43, text line 17. As stated in the preceding note, the doubling of the
r was effected here, also, by placing a superscript r over the ordinary r.
[2] Vol. IV. above, p. 332.
[3] See note 11 on page 215 above.
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