The rule of the Chalukyas of Badami came to an end with Kirtivarman II who was overthrown by Dantidurga, a Rashtrakuta

The rule of the Chalukyas of Badami came to an end with Kirtivarman II who was overthrown in 753 by Dantidurga, a Rashtrakuta.

The new era of political power thus started, lasted more than two and three quarter centuries; and constituted an age of perpetual political trial of strength and territorial expansion and inroads into the north beyond the Vindhyas and into the south beyond the borders of Karnataka.

These activities, however, meant little to the evolution of popular social life, administrative systems or cultural standards. With the solitary exception of Krishna I, the uncle of the founder of that power, who caused the Kailasanatha temple at Ellora to be excavated, there was no significant contribution to art or letters eilther.

Origin

The Rashtrakutas claimed a descent from the Yadavas of the Puranas, for it had in the medieval period become a fashion to claim respectable or sacred origins evidently for the purpose of acquiring legitimacy to political power in the eyes of the populace. Historians are, however, not agreed about the origin of the Rashtrakutas.

Their claim to have descended from the Rathors of Rajasthan is not accepted since Rashtrakutas are found in the Karnataka region much earlier. Some would derive Rashtra from the Telugu Reddi which is a linguistic change not possible among the Dravidian languages. It is more usual, however, to treat them as the descendants of the Rashtrikas (part of the Maharashtrians) mentioned in the Asokan inscriptions.

If that is true their history as political chiefs in the Deccan, however modest their power then might have been, may be taken to have arisen in pre-Satavahana times. They seem to have been hybernating in a condition of political torpor till, realising the opportunity offered by the weakening Chalukyan power, they rose into prominence in the eighth century.

They spoke Kannada and encouraged that language and its literature. That is one of the reasons for considering them natives of southern Deccan and not necessarily related to the Rajputs. Their original homeland was Lattaluru (Latur of the Old Nizam state of Hyderabad) where Kannada is the popular language even now.