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