Rashtrakutas dynasty originated from an ancient clan known as “Rashtrikas,
Rashtrikas also existed during the period of Ashoka in the 2nd century B.C. There were many Rashtrakuta dynasties that ruled small kingdoms during 6th and 7th centuries in southern, northern and central India.
There are a few inscriptions, & ancient literature in Sanskrit & Pali languages,
which highlight history of Rashtrakutas.
However during 8th to 10th century Inscriptions, we find Kannada as well as Sanskrit languages.
Rashtrakuta ruled Karnataka, Maharashtra and parts of Andhra Pradesh, for over two centuries. King Dantidurga had defeated Badami Chalukyas, and took control of the northern regions of the Chalukya empire & established rashtrakuta dynasty.
Inscription number 65.
Gokak Plates of Dejja-Maharaja
Aguptayika – Year 845 past
Provenance: Gokak, Belgaum district, Karnataka. Now in the possession of the Karnataka Historical Research Society. Dharwar.
Script: Southern brahmi of 6th – 7th centuries A.D.
Language: Sanskrit.
References: Karnataka Historical Review, I, No.11, pp.43 ff,
N. Lakshminarayan Rao, Ep.Ind, XXI,
pp. 289 ff.
Footnote 1.
1. In absence of any evidence to fix his date or relationship with the Rashtrakutas of Manapura, N Lakshminarayan has
tentatively fixed Dejja Maharaja rom A.D. 530 to 550, some Years after the reign of Abhimanyu. But to me, Dejja
appears to be an abbreviated pet name of Devaraja, son of Manamka. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the palaeography of the present plates is earlier than that of the Hingni Berdi plates of Vibhuraja (see next Plate)
from the facsimile in Ep.Ind between pp 290-91
3. Expressed by the spiral Symbol.
Footnote 2.
1. The last ma of मञ्ध्यम is inserted below the line under रा
2. ज़म्बूखण्ड has been identified with Jamkhandi, about 60 km. north of Gokak.
English Translation of the inscription.
Om. Hail ! May the bright and delusion-controlling
teachings of Varddhamana, who is a moon to the ocean, that is the community of the followers of Varddhamana, and who has
destroyed his enemies, spread
when forty five beyond eight hundred years of the Agupta-yika kings had elapsed, in (i.e. belonging to) this here
progressing and expanding spiritual lineage of the illustrious
(and) noble-minded Varddhamana, the twenty fourth of the
Tirthankaras, had elapsed, the illustrious overlord (adhiraja)
Indrananda who is the son of Vijayan and a Madhyamaraja and is the bright sun risen in the Armament of the illustrious and pure sendraka family, and who is the favourite of the
illustrious Dejja Maharaja, born of the Rashtrakuta dynasty:
– granted, for the increase of religious merit of the members of his dynasty and of himself, a farmland, measuring
fifty nivarttanas by the royal measure, in the village Jalara, situated near the mountain, in the division of Kashmandi, to Aryanandyacharya, who belonged to the Jambukhanda gana, and
was rich in sacred knowledge, philosophy and penance; for incessant worship of the idol of the divine Arhat, and for the maintenance of teachers, the sick and the old, and for the
service of the ascetics.
The farmland is situated to the north of the village of Jalara, bounded in the east by the village Vireya, to the
south as far as the Munja canal, from there to the west is the ant-hill overgrown with Enda creapers, from there to the north is the lake as far as the eastern vireya. He who takes
it away incurs the five great sins. Further it is said:-
(Here follow the three of the usual imprecatory verses)
Footnote. 1. Expressed by the spiral symbol. 2. We do not know anything of the Aguptayika kings, who sprang in the spiritual lineage of Vardhamana, or of their era. No reckoning is known at present which would give for 845 years an equivalent in the 6th or 7th centuries of the christian era of which the charter can be assigned on the evidence of palaeography. Counting from the date of accession viz. 323 B.C. of Chandragupta Maurya, who became a Jain before his death, 845 years, will bring us to 522 AD. Or if hi s accession, following Jain tradition ( see Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu, ed. H, Jacobi, pp.7). is fixed in 312-13 B.C., we come down to 532-33 A.D.
