The Emergence of New Dynasties
By the seventh century there were big landlords or
warrior chiefs in different regions of the subcontinent.
Existing kings often acknowledged them as their
subordinates or samantas. They were
expected to bring gifts for their
kings or overlords, be present at
their courts and provide them with
military support. As samantas gained
power and wealth, they declared
themselves to be maha-samanta,
maha-mandaleshvara (the great lord of
a "circle" or region) and so on.
Sometimes they asserted their
independence from their overlords.
One such instance was that of the
Rashtrakutas in the Deccan. Initially
they were subordinate to the Chalukyas
of Karnataka. In the mid-eighth century,
Dantidurga, a Rashtrakuta chief,
overthrew his Chalukya overlord and performed a ritual
called hiranya-garbha (literally, the golden womb). When
this ritual was performed with the help of Brahmanas, it
was thought to lead to the "rebirth" of the sacrificer as a
Kshatriya, even if he was not one by birth.
In other cases, men from enterprising families used
their military skills to carve out kingdoms. For instance,
the Kadamba Mayurasharman and the Gurjara-
Pratihara Harichandra were Brahmanas who gave up
their traditional professions and took to arms,
successfully establishing kingdoms in Karnataka and
Rajasthan respectively