Question

Who was Dantidurga? How did he become a Kshatriya?

Answer 1

Hint:Dantidurga was a king who reigned from 735 to 756 CE. He also is known as Dantivarman. He was the founder of the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta.

Complete answer: Dantidurga was the founder of the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta. The capital of his empire was based in Gulbarga region of Karnataka. His successor was Krishna I who was also his uncle. Krishna I extended his kingdom to all of Karnataka. Dantidurga defeated and overthrew his Chalukya overlord, in the mid-eighth century. It was then that he performed a ritual known as 'hiranya-garbha'. It was thought that such a ritual leads to the rebirth of the sacrificer as a Kshatriya, even when he was not one by birth. This particular ritual made him a ‘Kshatriya’. The Ellora record of Dantidurga reveals that he defeated the Chalukyas in 753. It is said that he took the titles Rajadhiraja and Parameshvara after that. The inscription describes him as the son of Indra II. The Samangad inscription declares that his mother was a Chalukyan princess from Gujarat. Her name was Bhavanaga. It is, however, clear from the Vakkaleri inscription of 757 that the Chalukyan Emperor Kirtivarman II retained control over his southern provinces.

Note: Various inscriptions state that Dantidurga defeated Karnata-Bala of the Badami Chalukyas and the kings of Lata (Gujarat), Malwa, Tanka, Kalinga and Shishas in central India.