The differing opinions mostly revolve around issues such as the home of the earliest ancestors of the medieval Rashtrakutas, a possible southern migration during the early part of the first millennium and the relationship between the several Rashtrakuta dynasties that ruled small kingdoms in northern and central India and the Deccan in the 6th century - 7th century.
Also contested is whether the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta were related by ancestry to the early Kannada and Maratha communities of the Deccan or other ethnic groups of northern India.
The study of the history of the early Rashtrakutas and the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta has been made possible by the availability of numerous inscriptions spread all over the Deccan, ancient literature in Pali,[1] contemporaneous Kannada literature such as Kavirajamarga (850) and Vikramarjuna Vijaya (941), Sanskrit writings by Somadeva, Rajashekara, Gunabhadra, Jinasena and others and the notes of Arab travellers of those times such as Suleiman, Ibn Haukal, Al Masudi, Al Istakhri and others.
Theories about their lineage (Surya Vamsa or Chandra Vamsa), native region and ancestral home have been proposed using clues from inscriptions, royal emblems, ancient clan names such as "Rashtrika", epithets such as Ratta, Rashtrakuta, Lattalura Puravaradhiswara, names of royalty, coins and contemporaneous literature.
[3][4] These theories from noted scholars have resulted in claims that the Rashtrakutas were from either Kannadiga[5][6][7][8][9] (possibly the tiller Vokkaliga[10]), Reddi,[11] Maratha,[12] Punjabi,[13] or other north western ethnic groups of India.
[14] The appearance of the terms Rathika, Ristika (Rashtrika) or Lathika in conjunction with the terms Kambhoja and Gandhara in some Ashokan inscriptions of the 2nd century BCE from Mansera and Shahbazgarhi in North Western Frontier Province (present day Pakistan), Girnar (Saurashtra) and Dhavali (Kalinga) and the use of the epithet "Ratta" in many later inscriptions had prompted a claim by Reu that the earliest Rashtrakutas were descendants of the Arattas, natives of the Punjab region mentioned in the text of Mahabharata who later migrated south and set up kingdoms there,[15] while another theory of J.H.
[21] Some scholars argue that the attempt to link the Rashtakutas to Marathas, Marathis or Rajputs was driven by a need to project modern political identities onto a much more complex past as these groups wouldn't exist till many centuries later.
[22] It is noted by another scholar that ruling clans called Rathis and Maharathis were in power in parts of present-day Karnataka as well in the early centuries of the Christian era, which is known inscriptions from the region and further proven by the discovery of lead coins from the middle of 3rd century bearing Sadakana Kalalaya Maharathi in the heart of modern Karnataka region near Chitradurga.
In the face of these facts it is claimed it can no longer be maintained that the Rathi and Maharathi families were confined only to present day Maharashtra.
[23] The terms Rathi, Maharathi, Rathika, Rashtriya, Rasthrapathi and Rasthtrakuta were of political and administrative significance and not used to denote any tribes or ethnicity.
[26] According to E. P. Rice the northern limits of the Kannada spoken region was pushed back by Maratha raids and conquests in more modern times.
It is proposed that it refers to their original home Lattalur, modern day Latur in Maharashtra state, bordering Karnataka.
[31] This area it is claimed was predominantly Kannada speaking based on surviving vestiges of place names, inscriptions and cultural relics.
It has been pointed out that princesses of family lineage belonging to Gujarat signed their royal edicts in Kannada even in their Sanskrit inscriptions.
It has been attested by a scholar that the Gujarat Rashtrakuta princes signed their inscriptions in the language of their native home and the race they belonged to.
[55] An inscription in classical Kannada of King Krishna III has also been found as far away as Jabalpur in modern Madhya Pradesh which further supports the view of their affinity to the language.
[55] Adikavi Pampa, Sri Ponna, Shivakotiacharya and King Amoghavarsha I were among the noteworthy scholars in Kannada,[62] the Apabhramsha poet Pushpadanta wrote several works and famous Sanskrit scholars such as Jinasena and Virasena (both of whom were theologians), mathematician Mahaviracharya and poets such as Trivikrama and Gunabhadra adorned their courts.