RASTRAKUTA DYNASTY

Hindu dynasty that ruled the Deccan and neighbouring areas of India from c. 755 to 975. Probably originally Dravidian farmers, they were the royal family of Lattalur (Latur, near Osmanabad). They spoke Kannada but also knew the northern Deccan language. Under Rastrakuta, who defeated a rival dynasty, the Calukyas (see Calukya dynasty), the Deccan Empire became the second greatest political unit in India, covering the area from Malwa to Kanchi. The importance of the Rastrakutas during this era is indicated by the fact that a Muslim traveller wrote of the King as being one of the four great rulers of the world (the others being the Caliph and the emperors of Byzantium and China). Several Rastrakuta monarchs were devoted to learning and the arts. The second king, Krsna I (c. 756773), built the rock temple of Kailasa at Ellora; another king, Amoghavarsa I, who reigned from c. 814 to 878, was the author of part of the Kavirajamarga, the earliest known Kannada poem. Other kings were skilled in the art of war. Dhruva I subdued the Gangas of Gangavadi (Mysore), contained the Pallava of Kanchi (Kanchipuram), and defeated the king of Bengal and the Pratihara king, who were contending for Kannauj. Krsna II, who succeeded in 878, reacquired Gujarat, which Amoghavarsa I had lost, but failed to retake Vengi. His grandson, Indra III, who came to the throne in 914, took Kannauj and brought Rastrakuta power to its peak. Krsna III outdid him in northern campaigns (c. 940) and in a spectacular occupation of Kanchi and much of the Tamil plains (948966/67). Khottiga Amoghavarsa IV (968972) failed to protect the capital, and its sack destroyed faith in the dynasty. The Emperor fled to the Western Ghats, where his line lingered ignominiously, supported by brave Ganga and Kadamba feudatories, until Taila I Calukya won the succession c. 975.