________________
222
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. VII
surprized, if we meet hereafter with epigraphic instances of further corruptions such as Ratthoda and Rathods, of which forms the last is actually the modern name which in gazetteers, etc., is presented as Ráthor' and 'Ráhtor." But, in the name Rashtróda, the second component, kúța, of Rashtrakata, is duly represented. Whereas, in the name Ratta there is nothing whatever to represent that second component of the other name. And, for that reason we cannot admit Ratta as a corrnption of, or in any way obtained from, the name Rashtrakūta.
It can only be the case that the name Rashtrakūta was evolved out of the name Ratta. And, that that was the case, is unconsciously disclosed by the draft presented in the Deôli plates of A.D. 940 and the Karhad plates of A.D. 959, in the verse which puts forward the eponymous person Ratta as the imaginary original ancestor of the Malkhêd family, and asserts that he had a son named Rashtrakůța, and says that it was from the name of that son that the family became known as the Rashtrakata race, or the race of Rashtrakúta or of the R&shtrakūtas.: Bat the name Rashtrakūta is certainly not merely & Sanskritised form of nothing but the name Ratta; for the simple reason that in Ratta there is nothing to account for the component kúta in the other form of the name. The name Ratta does account for the first component, ráshfra. It does not, however, account for it in the way of having been literally translated by the word ráshtra. The explanation is that, in devising an ornamental form of a name, Ratta, which, whatever may have been the origin of it, did not mean a country,' there was nsed, not unnatarally, a Sanskrit word, rashtra, which was the actual representative and origin of words of very similar sound, such as ratha, ratha, and rata, - possibly even raffa itself, if the existence of that form should be established hereafter, which did possess that meaning. There was thus obtained, as the first step, a name Rashtra. But it seems to have been then recognised that the appellation thus obtained was not sufficiently high-sounding, and that something more was needed to adapt it better to the purposes for which it was wanted. Now, the word kuta has the meaning, among cthers, of the highest, most excellent, first, derived no doubt from its meanings of any prominence, & peak or summit of a mountain.' In literature, it occurs in that meaning in the Bhagavata purana, 2, 9, 19, where Bhagavat (Vishnu-Krishna) is represented as addressing Brahman as kúta yôginam, "O chief of ascetics!” In the epigraphic records, it is used in the same meaning in the official title grâmakata, '& chief or headman of a village," and also actually in the word ráshtrakúta as an official title meaning the headman of a territorial division technically known as a růshfra." The word kúta, in that same meaning, was plainly employed in making ap the full family-name Rashtrakūta. . And the use of it, to fill out and give sufficient pomp to that form of the name, was very probably suggested by the actual existence of the word råshfrakúfa as an official title. But we need not think, any longer, that the name
1 Dr. Bübler has told us that the bards of Rajputáni," inversing the process," have invented Rashtraudba as an etymon for Rathod," in order to explain a ditheult Prakrit word; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XVII. p. 192, note 84.
* Namely, by the uda in Rashtra-wda, from which we bave eventually Rashtroda. Compare grámakita, gama-uda, and eventually ganada, etc., see page 188 above.
Vol. V. above, p. 193, text lines 11, 12, and Vol. IV. p. 287, verse 7, and p. 282, text lines 10, 11.
• For instance, in the SAmAngad plates of A.D. 754; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XI. p. 112, text line 29. Another form of this title was grdmakutaka, which we have, for instance, in the Kauthor plates of A.D. 1009, see id. Vol. XVI. p. 24, text line 60. Regarding the fact that the word gramakita was the origin of the Kanarese title Gauda, answering to the Marathi Patil, Patel, see page 183 above.
For instance, in an Eastern Chalukya record of the period A.D. 799 to 843; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 416. text line 17. Another Eastern Chalukya record, belonging or purporting to belong to the same period, presents the simple word kitaka, which we may take as standing either for rdahfrabataka or for grdmakitaka, as we like; Ave Vol. V. above, p. 120, text line 16. The records of Western Indis usually present, instead of ndahtrakita, either ndahtramahattara, us in the Saravni plates of the Katachchuri king Buddhurijs of A.D. 610 (nee Vol. VI. above, p. 298, text line 18), or malfrapali, as in the Smångad plates of the Rashtrakata king Dantidargs of A.D. 754 (wee Ind. Ant. Vol. XI. p. 112, text lide 28, and in the Kauthêm plates of the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya V. of A.D. 1009 (nee id, Vol. XVI. p. 24, text line 60).
