Rashtrakuta Empire

The Rashtrakuta Empire (Kannada: [raːʂʈrɐkuːʈɐ]) was a royal Indian polity ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the 6th and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their rule from Manapur, a city in Central or West India. Other ruling Rashtrakuta clans from the same period mentioned in inscriptions were the kings of Achalapur and the rulers of Kannauj. Several controversies exist regarding the origin of these early Rashtrakutas, their native homeland and their language.

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 AD. At the same time the Pala dynasty of Bengal and the Prathihara dynasty of Gurjaratra 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.^[5]

This period, between the 8th 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 Manyakheta ruled a vast empire stretching from the Ganges River and Yamuna River doab in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, a fruitful time of political expansion, architectural achievements and famous literary contributions. Interpretations of some historians suggest that the only later kings of the dynasty were influenced by Jainism.^[6][7] However, other historians contend their Jain affiliation was not a later development and that historical evidence shows they were devout followers of the Jain Dharma, and that successive kings continued their family's legacy of Jain patronage.^[8][9][10]

During their rule, Jain monks, Jain mathematicians and Jain 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 Kailasanatha Temple at Ellora in modern Maharashtra. Other important contributions are the Kashi-Vishwanatha temple and the Jain~Narayana temple at Pattadakal in modern Karnataka, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.